Communication and Assumptions: Roommates

When we embrace our sizzle many other amazing things happen. It is inspiring to see someone embrace who they are! Also, one of the greatest results of embracing our sizzle is our heightened capacity for love and compassion for others. In order to get to a place of deeply appreciating ourselves, love, compassion, understanding, forgiveness, and non-judgement are required. As we nurture these aspects of our relationship with ourself we are able to see others with a whole new perspective.

Anytime you have a challenge communicating with someone, make sure you get clear on how you define the subject of what the challenge is about. Often we make assumptions about what others are thinking and feeling. Mainly we assume that the other person we are communicating with thinks like we do.

What is a roommate? Did you ever stop and consider that other people define what a roommate is differently? Some people think a roommate is someone who moves in and shares living space, or someone who shares living space and is a good friend who you hang out with, or someone who doesn't invite company without asking, or someone who doesn't have to ask to invite company, or someone who doesn't leave dishes in the dishwasher, or someone who cleans, or someone who...

What do you expect out of a roommate? Do you know what a roommate expects out of you?

If there were a standard definition of a roommate and what the commitment in that relationship then just think of how many fewer roommate challenges there would be. The arguments could be about not holding up the commitment. In reality, when people argue or disagree, many times they are basing their conversation on two different definitions of the subject of the conversation.

Next time you have an argument about how "dirty" or "clean" the house is or isn't and how someone did more than someone else.. realize that both people could be right and that the home very well could be "clean" according to their definition. Get clear and agree on a standard of "clean" before you argue whether the house is or isn't.