Affirmation to Kindness I am sensitive to the needs and desires of others.

I am sensitive to the needs and desires of others.


What somebody asks for and what they need are often two different objects, and the gap between them is where most misunderstandings live. A teenager asks for money and needs twenty minutes of undivided attention. A colleague asks for feedback and needs to be told the work is not a disaster.

Sensitivity means hearing both, and then usually answering the request anyway, because deciding you know better than someone about their own life is a fast route to being insufferable. Give the money. Then stay in the room a while longer than the transaction required.