I was having a conversation this morning with my son, and he said something that struck me hard.  We were talking about helping someone do things a bit differently for their own good, and he said, “No one wants to hear they are doing it wrong.” People do indeed close down and move into defense mode when they are criticized. How do we point out a problem, if that very act will simply cause them to dig in deeper?

It seems like there is a lot of rib-poking during conferences where wives and husbands, parents and even children and siblings seem to hope that they are listening so that they will change. Sometimes we do this because it’s easier than facing our own issues, which can be hard to see clearly in ourselves. We too are part of the group that doesn’t like to hear that we are doing it wrong.

How do we apply teachings to ourselves, to see where we need to change without being nagged by thoughts of failure?

What do we do when we want to help someone else overcome a problem?