I often get asked how one should deal with false accusations and manipulations at work.

Let’s say that someone at your workplace made an accusation about you—it turns out it wasn’t true, but they caused a big fuss, and it was super awkward.

Now, when you’re at the office and you walk into the lunchroom and see them walk in, you decide to have your lunch break a little later so you don’t have to face them. That’s manipulation. You’ve gone off track.

Your original intent was to have lunch at that time—it’s your preferred time and place. But you’ve allowed them to shift that track, which means, even long after the accusations are settled, they’re still manipulating you.

You’re still agreeing to change your course because of them. Regardless of what you think is best for managing how they treat you, staying on track is the most important thing for your own confidence.

One way to define self-confidence—there are many definitions, of course—is this: a confident person can’t be knocked off track.

The mission they’re on is like an unstoppable force.

You can get in the way, but they’ll walk over you, push through you, or wait until you get out of the way and keep moving forward. You’d have to physically restrain them. They’re so strongly on their track.

To dive deeper into this topic, check out the original video here: