Dealing with Difficult People

How to deal with difficult people? Don't we wish we had the magic formula to do just that.

How many times have we said to ourselves, "We can do so much better, if only we didn't have to deal with so and so?"

Last LPG we listened to several folk stories about difficult people and we discussed what wisdom we each drew from these stories.

For myself, the wisdom came from the introspective questions raised during our discussions:
"In relationships, am I the difficult person?"
"Am I sometimes being too insistent?"
"Am I not the stubborn one?"
"Am I really being pro-active? Do I seek first to understand?"

Since the LPG meeting, I relearned the lesson of: "Be the change you want to see in the world."

Be a bit more patient, be a bit more open-minded, be a bit more optimistic, have a bit more faith that things will work out.

With that mental adjustment, things have turned out pretty well.

And it has been quite a couple of weeks with a number of delightful "wins"--the latest is an opportunity to work with RCTC to host a China-US Town Hall meeting in December that has potential national visibility.

Tomorrow's LPG meeting, we will continue with How To Deal with Difficult People. Given the results from our last meeting, I can only say ... "Bring it on."

How to deal with difficult poeple

Last LPG we talked about forgiveness, we focused on the idea that forgiving does not mean not holding the perpetrator or our tormentor accountable for their actions but to let go of the anger, the hurt and the continual cycle of revenge toward them.

Great leaders all have that ability. Two years after surviving near-fatal gunshot wounds, Pope John Paul II visited his would-be assassin, Mehmet Ali Ağca,

According to Wikipedia,

'the two spoke privately for 20 minutes.^[5] John Paul II said, “What we talked about will have to remain a secret between him and me. I spoke to him as a brother whom I have pardoned and who has my complete trust.″

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It would be up to our imagination what they did talk about. It does strike me that forgiving is more thoughts and actions then words. True forgiveness is purity and does not convey arrogance, pompousness or ego gratification. It's often private. But when it does occur, the world becomes a bit lighter.

Tomorrow's LPG we are going to work on something a bit more practical. We will discuss how to deal with difficult people. To me cultivating FACT (forgiveness, acceptance, compassion, and true purposes) in myself is probably a good starting point.