A very good point. To having oneself bound to certain agreements can be tricky.

Bullies, assuming that they perceive themselves as inferior, are an expression of the same. In the unconditional wanting of consent in the sense of "obey me!" it is futile to want to change the behaviour of a domineering person.

What I can do when confronted with it is simply not to obey. The other person will not necessarily stop wanting to dominate one, but will notice that one nevertheless does not obey. If I am able to not verbalise my disobedience as "my right", the other has no leverage against me because I leave the level of justifying myself and mind my own business. The bully will lose interest sooner or later if I don't feed his dramaturgy.

I had some interesting encounters in my professional life where people higher up in the hierarchy wanted to dominate me. Like my ex boss wanting me to wear a mini skirt at a fair. I told him that I would not and he can fire me, if he so wishes.

I refused to work longer hours and asked him "So, you find pleasure in seeing your employees working overtime? I'm not going to do this just to please you. Am I doing a bad job? If so, tell me. If not, I will continue to go home on time."

Of course, I also had moments which I would not call very heroic or brave. I had a job where I realized that it would be too much of a fight towards my boss and I quit working there. Sometimes it succeeds to earn respect, at other times it fails. It took me some time not to feel ashamed towards myself, for I had the feeling of cowardly running away (which need not to be framed that way but is just a sense of reality that I cannot fight on all fronts).

A bully will not stop if he sniffs that I am having certain weaknesses but I still argue with him. I will get defeated by those weak points I have (... but even that may be a learning lesson for me).

Having said all this, I think that one can talk to almost everyone if the mind is fresh and the heart is light. :)