The other day, a friend of mine who is divorcing her husband said to me “The trained mediator in you is a very different person than the usually very protective friend.” I hadn’t realized it, but I had inadvertently kept my mediator hat on when talking to her about a very emotional and turbulent situation. Instead of encouraging her to make an aggressive litigation move—as the die-hard friend that I am previously would have—I was exploring whether there were other less combative ways to reach her ultimate goal of finality. As of my dearest friends, I obviously want her to find the peace that she seeks, but that she obtain it in the least traumatizing way possible for her and her kids. But after the conversation, the statement gnawed at me. It made me realize, for better or worse, the way I think about and respond to conflict has changed. I hadn’t realized until that conversation just how much that impacts who I am on a daily basis.