Pulling On A Rope
A relationship factor.
Do you have a poor relationship with a family member or someone you work with? Is there an issue that cannot seem to be resolved and in an attempt to do so, you have held out an olive branch to this person?
But have been rebuffed?
If so, you are doing a slow burn and are now attempting to decide what the next move you will make to get the situation under control. That has been my problem over the past few months with a family member.
I proffered an olive branch that was summarily rejected, this rejection set me back on my heels. I decided to discuss this with a good friend who had a similar problem some time ago. After listening to my diatribe he offered these words
Stop pulling on the rope!
My response was” what do you mean? He said by continuing to pull on the rope, I was prolonging the problem and in fact making it worse. His explanation was that when an issue exists between two people, they are holding opposing ends of a rope. While both people are holding onto the rope, they are creating resistance at each end and that resistance is prolonging the resolution of the problem.
