Walking away isn’t losing the fight. It’s winning something bigger than the fight.

A conflict offers one kind of win and leaving offers another, and they are not on the same scale. Staying in it can get you the last word and cost you the evening, the friendship or something worse. Choosing not to compete is difficult mainly because it looks like surrender from inside the moment.

Decide beforehand what you are unwilling to spend on being right. When something crosses that line, go, and give yourself credit afterward rather than replaying whether you should have stayed.