How to be a member of polite society when you are 1% in politeness.
Dr Peterson, Thank you for everything you do. You have been a positive influence on my life and have helped me to gain a better understanding of my weaknesses and work towards improving them. I took your personality test and scored 1% in politeness, 30% in compassion, very high in neuroticism, 50% in extroversion, high in openness. I have many close friends and do well socially in pairs or in small groups. While my disagreeable personality has helped me to form authentic, lasting friendships with exceptional people, I have difficulty integrating into a larger social group. I am more than willing to stand up for myself when disrespected and oftentimes offend people by being direct. While I generally do not take conflict personally, I have found that a number of people do and will actively work against me to undermine my position in a social group via reputation destruction, gossip, etc. I have found it hard to integrate into larger social groups. This has obvious implications for my personal/romantic life. I’ve realized that in order to date effectively, I need to build a more robust social circle. I also have a level of social phobia that somehow manages to coexist with my confrontational nature. I think this is in part due to internalizing a level of social rejection that I experienced as an adolescent. How can I work towards overcoming my social phobia and building skills that will allow me to become more socially integrated. Also, Thank you for everything that you do. I appreciate you for standing up for what you believe in and find inspiration in the resilience and courage you have shown while recovering from the benzodiazepine related illness.
Exercising Assertiveness
Howdy! I'm working as a general manager at a fast food restaurant. For my position I believe I'm to agreeable and end up avoiding confrontation, thus not holding my employees to the standard I should, and sometimes feel disrespected. I would like to change to be a better leader for my people. Could you share some actionable tips or tricks to excerise on a daily basis to strengthen the trait assertiveness? Thank you for all of your work.