“I” Statements

Years ago I attended a workshop on “I” statements and owning the problem. This is a simple, useful communication idea: instead of placing blame or accusing someone else, one starts a sentence with the word “I” to make it clear that the onus of the problem is on the speaker.

For example:

I have a problem with dog owners who allow their dogs to defecate on my front lawn.

Instead of

Dog owners are lousy human beings who let their dogs defecate on my front lawn.

We all have issues that bother us. If we can realize that the problem is really our own, it might help with communicating the problem to someone else.

Feel free to try this out by leaving a problem starting with “I” (it could be fake) in the comments.