Reacting fast feels strong. Responding well usually takes about ten more seconds.

Speed gets mistaken for strength because a fast reaction looks certain. What it usually means is that your first thought arrived and nothing checked it. The second thought is almost always better than the first, and it needs about the length of a breath to show up, which is nothing at all in the scale of a day.

When something lands badly, count slowly to ten before you say or type anything. If ten feels impossible, go and get a glass of water. The answer waiting on the other side of that pause is the one you will want to have given.