Always forgive your enemies.
Nothing annoys them so much
- Oscar Wilde

There is a good way to fight. A way in which you use your intelligence in order to be able to achieve things and in order to be able to select the issues in which you want to fight.

One successful way is by giving in on selected issues that are relatively small to you. There is no reason to waste your effort, energy, money, or time on issues that are relatively trivial.

Give in on little things so you'll have the strength to manage the things that are of greater importance.

Select the issues that are really important to you, the ones in which you cannot afford to lose, and use your energy on them. You will have more energy to spend on them and you will be able to devote yourself to those fights much more successfully that way. It's a much wiser way of dealing with all of those inevitable issues which are going to come up in life anyhow and to select the ones that are important enough to fight for and to put aside the others which really are less important.

Prioritize the major issues in your life, and fight for them if need be. Decide where you are going in life and what you want to accomplish. The priority should consider the important things that you need to do or to accomplish in order to reach your goals. Once you've done that you can decide which are the important things, the less important things, and which are the least important things. Those things that are less important are not worth fighting about. Give in. Let the other guy win. Give the other guy a medal. What do you care?

And that way you will have the strength and ability to win with those things that are important to you. ***

Some people are so ready to fight that they may not even consider an equally valid option - giving in.

They may say, "I am not stubborn about many things, but the issue at hand is important." That statement has important implications. It means that they would only give in with issues that are not important to them. They are fooling themselves about the very concept of giving in.

Let's try to understand this concept in a logical manner.

If an issue is not important, then their concession is of no importance, because they do not care about it. They are not making a sacrifice by announcing that they are giving in on an issue that is of no importance.

This page recommends that people should give in on important issues. That's when it counts.

Let's consider the case of someone who sacrificed something that was important.

Abraham was asked to make a real sacrifice - by offering his dear son Isaac on an altar.

Abraham could have replied, "Listen, I am not trying to be stubborn. I am willing to sacrifice something else, like tomorrow's breakfast. I'll remain hungry until noon. I hope that will make You happy."

Such an action would not be a sacrifice. Missing breakfast is not a significant act.

Many people determine their own (limited) standards for giving in. They stipulate issues that they consider to be important, and then they cheerfully announce their "concession."

Perhaps we should evaluate whether any stipulation of stubbornness is valid.

• Is it worth making a fuss about the issue?
• What do you stand to gain?
• What do you stand to lose?