Dealing with Difficult People

We all have difficult people in our lives whose personality traits or emotional characteristics can make it difficult for us to communicate or interact with. Yet, what makes a person difficult is perceived by our own type of personality and how we relate to others. When dealing with difficult people we can ask ourselves, “Why is this person difficult for me?”

There’s an old saying, “People who irritate us usually have something to show us about ourselves.” For example, being around someone who’s always irresponsible may infuriate us. Yet, why are we reacting in such an emotional way?  Our response may be a mirror of the way we’ve been irresponsible in the past and hated that aspect of ourselves. The traits we most dislike in others are usually the traits we don’t like about ourselves. The same is true for the qualities and traits that we admire in others, like kindness, enthusiasm, sincerity, etc. The traits we admire most in others are the same positive traits we have, though we may not realize it. That’s why people who seem difficult can actually teach us more about ourselves and are among our greatest teachers.