Constructive Conflict: Three Tips to a Better Life through Conflict

To see and or understand that conflict as an opportunity for personal growth is the first tip of employing conflict to build a better life. If we are willing to observe our own behavior, through conflict we can come to see ourselves for who we are. 

Stephen Covey pointed out that human beings have four unique gifts over other animals. One of those gifts is self-awareness. Self-awareness is the ability to observe our own personal behavior as if in the third person.

By using self-awarness to actively observe our attitudes and actions, we  can devise strategies to work through conflict in ways that mutually beneficial to both parties. In this way, conflict becomes constructive and affords us an opportunity for personal growth.

Conflict is sooo natural to life you would think we would all be experts at it by now. But in fact, for most of us, the exact opposite is true. Even though conflict is such a normal part of relationships, most of us are just plain bad at it.

The reason why we are so poor at working through conflict is that we tend have a bad attitude about it. We tend to see it as negative thing to be avoided at all cost, rather than a positive experience to learn and grow. This article discusses constructive conflict and how to see and use conflict as an opportunity for a better life.

In this article featuring constructive conflict, we will walk together to discover seven tips to a better life through conflict. Those four tips include:

1. To see conflict as an opportunity for personal growth;
2. To see conflict as an opportunity to improve your relational skills;
3. To see conflict as an opportunity to improve your relationship with the other person.

In this way, conflict can become constructive and provide opportunities to have a better life.

To see conflict as an opportunity to improve our relational skills is a second tip for using interpersonal struggles to better life through conflict. Although fighting with others is never easy and almost always painful, interpersonal struggles with others gives us chances to develop and improve our ability and capacity for relating with others.

For instance, we can choose to use conflict to fine tune our communication skills by learning to be better active listeners. We can also learn how to temper our speech to make it edifying rather than terrorizing. In this way, constructive conflict can be used to build a better life.

To see conflict as an opportunity to improve your relationship with the other person is a third tip for using person to person skirmishes to better life. Hurtful attitudes, words, and actions can be devastating to a relationship, but working out problems can help you learn more about your companion and help you draw closer and more intimate with him or her.

The important point here is to take a humble learner attitude.

Even if you believe the other person was mostly at fault, constructive conflict allows you to use your interpersonal struggle to learn more about your friend or spouse. Through the process of working out the issue(s), you can find out more about your partner's preferences. Working through the sticky points (no matter how painful) can create an emotional bond that will result in even stronger and more intimate bond. In this way, constructive conflict can be beneficial and lead to a better life.