Dealing with Difficult People

Got a difficult person in your life? Wish you knew better ways to deal with difficult people and personalities?

Perhaps you’re frustrated by a difficult ex, friend, family member, co-worker, neighbor, spouse, partner or boss. Believe me, you’re not alone. It’s a real struggle for most of us to deal with difficult people. Why? Because most folks don’t like conflict, it’s hard to confront a difficult person and learn how to draw and maintain boundaries. However, we learn from our mistakes, right? That means we learn how to advocate for ourselves, ask for what we need and handle situations in an assertive but respectful way.

Your difficult person could be a co-worker, manager, father-in-law, sister-in-law, teacher or a neighbor. Goodness, it could be your spouse or your pastor! I’ve had people tell me they’ve struggled with a child care provider, doctor, hairdresser and (can you believe it?) even their teenagers!

So, one night while watching a movie, I noticed a lot of similarities between the difficult person I was dealing with at the time and the monster “Godzilla”. You remember those old monster movies, don’t you? A meteor would crash down out of the sky straight into a swamp. It would create some kind of toxic soup and before long, out would crawl the creature “Godzilla”. He kinda looked like this…

Then it would slime it’s way across the countryside wreaking havoc and destruction wherever it went! I noticed that the longer Godzilla rampaged, the more time it had to eat up livestock and power plants. And the bigger it got! The longer the monster continued to rampage, the harder it was for people to stop. I also noticed that when the townspeople were victorious, everyone rejoiced! It wasn’t just one or two people who were affected – tons of people were frightened out of their wits.

It occurred to me that most of us grapple with our own “Godzillas” in life. Perhaps yours is getting a little too close for comfort. Maybe you’re waaaay beyond annoyed at this point and rapidly approaching fed-up-to-here. It could be you’re also cranky from losing sleep and sick and tired of dealing with the situation. You may be trying to avoid this person at all costs and hoping for some relief, just so life can get back to normal. Maybe you just want a little peace!

To help people learn how to face down, talk to and cope with the difficult people in their lives, I’ve taught seminars, given teleclasses and built workbooks. And now, I have an affordable, downloadable Ebook to help you too. The tips and applications come from folks like us with real life struggles, including frontline managers, board members, PTA groups, home owners association members, teachers, students, case managers, paralegals, nurses, human resources professionals, etc.

So, if you’re struggling with someone who’s making life tough, give the Ebook a try. Next I’ll be adding a full-sized downloadable workbook in case you’d like to teach others how to cope.

48 Ways to Deal with Difficult People Ebook, by Laura Benjamin: 60 pages and 48 tutorial lessons on how to cope with your difficult person. Organized in bite-sized chunks, this Ebook will make it easier to quickly find a strategy that helps manage your difficult situation. A popular tutorial frustrated folks have used with great success at work, home, church, school, with your board or homeowners association! ($9.97)