Stress Management: 3 Rules for Dealing with Difficult People

Seems like more and more they are all around us. You know who I'm talking about - all those difficult people who seem to cross our path everyday.

Whether we associate with them, work with them, or, even worse, live with them, they can drain the life out of your day if you let them.

3 Rules for dealing with difficult people

Rule 1 - You cannot, will not, and should not even try to change them. The only winnng move, if you can't avoid them altogether, is to change your responses to them. Remember the three things we are always responsible for, our attitudes, our choices and our actions.

Rule 2 - In order to successfully deal with difficult people, you have to play the "I can expect that" game. What is the "I can expect that" game? To play the this game, you have to expect difficult people act exactly like difficult people. The trap we fall into is that we expect everyone to play by the same nice rules (and/or our rules) and then are shocked, surprised and hurt when the difficult people show up and act the way they do.

Playing the "I can expect that" game with difficult people allows us to do at least three things:

we can anticipate and plan for their behaviorwe are not surprised by their behaviorwe can resond to their behavior, instead of reacting

Rule - You and I might be someone else's difficult person. Ouch, I know, not us right? At the same time, it's always good to check our own behavior too.

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