I was running late. My wife Eleanor and I had agreed to meet at the restaurant at seven o'clock and it was already half past. I had a good excuse in the form of a client meeting that ran over and I wasted no time getting to the dinner as fast as possible.
迟到了。我跟老婆埃莉诺约好7点在饭店见面来着，现在已经7点半了。我的理由还算充分：因为跟某个客户有约，所以只能先忙完再马不停蹄赶来一起吃晚饭。
When I arrived at the restaurant, I apologized and told her I didn't mean to be late.
赶到饭店后，我急忙跟老婆道歉：我不是故意要迟到的。
She answered: "You never mean to be late." Uh oh, she was mad.
她回道：“你什么时候故意迟到过?”呃，看来老婆生气了。
"Sorry," I retorted, "but it was unavoidable." I told her about the client meeting. Not only did my explanations not soothe her, they seemed to make things worse. That started to make me angry.
“对不起，”我说，“但事情真的推不开。”接下来就是我要跟客户见面如何如何……可是，我越解释越是火上浇油，最后连我自己也气得不行。
That dinner didn't turn out to be our best.
自然，那顿晚饭也吃得不开心。
Several weeks later, when I was describing the situation to a friend of mine, Ken Hardy, a professor of family therapy, he smiled.
几个星期后，我把这件事告诉了朋友肯-哈迪。肯是家庭治疗方面的专家。听完我的诉说，他笑了。
"You made a classic mistake," he told me.
“你可真是犯了一个典型的错误。”他说。
"Me? I made the mistake?" I was only half joking.
“啥?是我做错了吗?”我半开玩笑问道。
"Yes. And you just made it again," he said. "You're stuck in your perspective: You didn't mean to be late. But that's not the point. The point is that you were late. The point — and what's important in your communication — is how your lateness impacted Eleanor."
“当然是你错了，刚才就是。”他说。“你一直从自己的立场强调‘我不是故意迟到的’，但这不是问题的关键，关键是你确实迟到了，而且你的迟到确实影响到了埃莉诺。”
In other words, I was focused on my intention while Eleanor was focused on the consequences. We were having two different conversations. In the end, we both felt unacknowledged, misunderstood, and angry.
这样说来，我只一味强调我的本意，而埃莉诺看重的却是结果。所以，我俩讲的话根本就风马牛不相及，最后自然都会因为分歧和误解而生气了。
The more I thought about what Ken said, the more I recognized that this battle — intention vs. consequences — was the root cause of so much interpersonal discord.
肯的话，我越想越觉得这种“本意VS结果”的争论正是很多人际关系不和的根本原因。
As it turns out, it's not the thought that counts or even the action that counts. That's because the other person doesn't experience your thought or your action. They experience the consequences of your action.
事实表明，争吵的根源不在于你怎么想或你做了什么，毕竟别人体会不到你的想法或行为，别人体会到的是你的行为所带来的后果。
Here's another example: You send an email to a colleague telling him you think he could have spoken up more in a meeting.
举例来说：你给同事发了封邮件，说你觉得他本可以在会议上多做点发言。
He replies to the email, "Maybe if you spoke less, I would have had an opportunity to say something!"
他回复邮件说：“或许，要是你能少说一点，我就有机会插上两句了吧!”
That obviously rankles you. Still, you send off another email trying to clarify the first email: "I didn't mean to offend you, I was trying to help." And then maybe you add some dismay at the aggressiveness of his response.
这种话显然激怒了你，但你又发了一封邮件进行解释：“我不是要找你茬，只想提点意见罢了。”又或许，因为同事的回复太过分，你在邮件里也添油加醋了一番。
But that doesn't make things better. He quotes the language of your first email back to you. "Don't you see how it reads?" He asks. "BUT THAT'S NOT WHAT I MEANT!" You write back, IN CAPS.
可这么一来，事情反倒更糟。他把你第一封邮件的原话拷贝给你，反问道：“那你这是写的什么?”你特地用大写字母回邮以示强调：“我不是那个意思!”