Choose the hill before the argument starts. In the middle, every hill looks worth dying on.

Once you are inside a disagreement, the stakes inflate. Every detail attaches itself to the main point, backing down on anything feels like losing everything, and your judgement about what actually matters stops working. Deciding in advance which part you genuinely care about gives you something to hold on to when that distortion arrives.

Before a conversation you expect to be difficult, name the one thing you will not trade and accept that the rest is available. Write it on your hand if you have to. Then you can give ground on four points without feeling you lost, because you know which one you kept.