Persuasiveness is Not an Inherent Trait

[unspeakablehorror]

 I think one of the things that makes life less stressful for me is that I don't necessarily feel like lack of persuading people of something is a failure on my part.  I don't exclude the possibility that I could have done a better job making my case, but I also realize that persuasion is a dynamic between two people and not a trait the persuader actively has nor is the person being persuaded just a passive participant in the process.  Like, on the simplest level, a person can simply choose not to listen to anything that makes them feel uncomfortable or contradicts their current beliefs.  For someone to be capable of being persuaded of something, they have to be willing to actively listen to arguments regarding it and consider their implications.  There's a lot of reasons why this might not happen that have nothing to do with how well I might make my argument.