Together with your better half, you’re planning a dinner with friends for Saturday in two weeks at your place. You decide to invite two other couples as this is about the number of people you feel confident to cook that superduper receipe you’ve read about and they know each other well, so it should be a fun evening. Thrilled by thought of hosting that dinner, you send an email to your two girlfriends to invite them and their partners. As you send the email only to two of your friends and you don’t want to be perceived as complicated, you decide not to mention until when you wish to get a feedback – I mean, these are your friends.
You’ve received an invite for a dinner party in a couple of weeks. You were in the queue waiting to pay for your lunch when you first read the mail. It’s then a couple of days later that you’re reading again this email. It was pure luck that you’ve stumbled upon it again as the synchronisation between outlook and your phone is a little goofy lately. Well, basically you would be happy to go but you first need to check if your other half is going to come along as it’s an invite for both of you. You plan to discuss it that night… and as the mood of your better half is kind of low due to some stress at work, you end up postponing again. Then, finally when you mention the issue to your partner, he tells you that just yesterday, the other gal from work asked him out for the movies…. and you feel even more stressed because it already took you ages to get to that point and you feel bad towards your friend who invited you.
The same story from two perspecitves and I know both situations and perspectives well. What to do? For the latter, being the guest, I try to be fast with a first response, even if it means calling them and explaining why I need a little time to sort things out. In the former, I try not to take it personal… which is sometimes difficult. Do you know these challenges of every day life? How are you dealing with it?