7 Life Changing Lessons Learned From Walt Disney



Walt Disney
Walter Elias "Walt" Disney was a film producer, animator, entrepreneur, entertainer, director, screenwriter, voice actor, international icon, and philanthropist.

Walt is well-known for his influence in the entertainment industry during the twentieth century. Walt co-founded Walt Disney Productions with his brother Roy O. Disney and became one of the most famous motion picture producers of all time.

The company that he co-founded is now known as “The Walt Disney Company” and has annual revenues of approximately $35 Billion (US).

Walt and members of his staff created a number of the world's most famous fictional characters. This includes Mickey Mouse, whose original voice was Walt himself.

Walt has won 26 Academy Awards and he has earned 59 nominations; he has more awards and nominations than any other individual. Additionally, Walt has won seven Emmy Awards, and he is the namesake for Disneyland and Walt Disney World Resort theme parks in the United States, China, Japan, and France.

Clearly there is a ton to learn from Walt Disney. Let's take a look at 7 Life-Changing Lessons from Walt Disney:

  1. Keep Things in Perspective

    “A man should never neglect his family for business.”

    Your family is your first business, and they should never be neglected in pursuit of "a dream." Your family must be part of your dream, and should remain within your focus. Never become so consumed in business affairs that you neglect the individuals whom you need most.

  2. Competition is Good

    “I have been up against tough competition all my life. I wouldn't know how to get along without it.”

    Competition makes you stronger, it makes you better, it keeps you on your toes. Never shrink away from competition; never fail to see the value of competition. Your competitors can provide you with more value than your friends. Learn from the competition, and you will grow.

    It’s critical that you embrace competition as well as adversity, Walt Disney said, “All the adversity I've had in my life, all my troubles and obstacles have strengthened me... You may not realize it when it happens, but a kick in the teeth may be the best thing in the world for you.”

  3. Do What You Love

    “Disneyland is a work of love. We didn't go into Disneyland just with the idea of making money.”

    You must follow your passion, if you’re doing it just for the money, it probably won’t last. Passion is what gives you the strength to overcome the obstacles associated with every dream. Passion is what keeps you going when everyone else is tired…money can't do that for you, only passion; passion is power.

  4. Do the Impossible

    “It's kind of fun to do the impossible.”

    Walt Disney said, “If you can dream it, you can do it.” Life is too short to spend it doing the possible. Learn to pursue the impossible, pursue what others say can’t be done, pursue what has never been done before, pursue your dreams, and turn them into a reality.

    You must believe in the beauty of your dreams. Walt said, “When you believe in a thing, believe in it all the way, implicitly and unquestionable.” If you’re going to believe, you might as well believe all the way.

  5. Action Always Trumps Inaction

    “The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing.”

    I always say that “well done” is better than “well said,” so quit talking and start doing! Quit planning and start practicing; a plan is good, a good plan is even better, but if that plan doesn’t get put into action it’s as useless as a four fingered glove. Learn to get into action, start today, whatever you’ve been postponing …just do it. If you wait for the perfect time, you’ll never accomplish anything.

  6. It Takes a Village

    “You can design and create, and build the most wonderful place in the world. But it takes people to make the dream a reality.”

    Isaiah wrote, “Without a vision, the people perish.” But I think it’s worth noting that without people, the vision will perish. Never forget that you need people; never forget that your life is about serving others. When you serve others, you serve yourself.

  7. Get Better Daily

    “Whenever I go on a ride, I'm always thinking of what's wrong with the thing and how it can be improved.”

    Everyday you should become a little better than you were the day before. If you can become one percent better daily, you can recreate your life every 100 days. Learn to get better daily; look for ways to improve, to be kinder, more intelligent, and more helpful.
In Closing
Let us remember that Walt Disney said, “All our dreams can come true, if we have the courage to pursue them.”

Thank you for reading and be sure to pass this article along.

Written on 5/04/2010 by Mr. Self Development who is a motivational author that offers a practical guide to success and wealth; support him by visiting his blog at mrselfdevelopment.com or by subscribing to his feed.Photo Credit: jeffchristiansen




Beyond Money: The Other Types of Riches




Do you want to be rich? Most of us equate "rich" with "money" – and we take it for granted that more money is a good thing. We daydream about winning the lottery and quitting our jobs, traveling the world, and buying all the expensive gadgets we want.

Study after study, though, shows that more money doesn't make us happier. Of course, if you're living on the breadline, it will – but past a certain, fairly low, salary, there's no relationship between salary and happiness.

I think that real happiness comes from other types of riches. You might not have loads of money, but if you've got enough to live on, how about focusing on some of these ways of getting rich instead?

Time-Rich
You've probably come across the phrase "money rich, time poor". This, perhaps, sums up the reasons why more money doesn't result in more happiness. Often, the more you earn, the more time you spend earning – or taking care of your money and the trappings which come with it.

Being time-rich means having the freedom to spend as much of your life as possible doing what you want. Having an abundance of time can bring rewards that no amount of money can buy. Time-rich parents, for instance, have the chance to really engage with their kids. A time-rich painter or writer might not make millions, but might produce some truly outstanding pieces of art. A time-rich academic could revolutionize a particular discipline.

Money can be earned, exchanged and horded. Time goes past constantly, however much we might like to stop it. Being time-rich means engaging fully with life.

Get time-rich:

  • Where's your time going? Keep a time log for a few days (write down what you're doing every 15 – 30 minutes) and find out. Any nasty surprises?

  • Instead of focusing on "saving time" on little tasks, look for big ways to add time to your day.
Health-Rich
If you lose a lot of money, you can recover. It might take some time, but you can turn around your personal finances and get out of debt. You can close a failing business and start a new one. You can borrow money from family or from the bank.

If you destroy your health, there's often no going back. Some chronic illnesses, such as ME, are caused by periods of overwork and stress. Is it worth wrecking your health for the sake of a few extra hours in work?

One of the most powerful stories I've come across about this is in Jonathan Field's book Career Renegade:

I'd been working nearly seventy-two hours straight, each one more excruciating than the one before. But, missing the deadline meant losing $100 million for our client, so I pressed on until we finally closed the deal. I staggered into a cab, passed out for a few hours, then headed straight to my doctor's office. [...] Weeks of relentless hours had literally collapsed my immune system, allowing a softball-sized infection to ravage my intestines and eat a hole through them from the outside-in.

Get health-rich:
  • Make time to exercise, every day. Even if you don't think it's going to make any difference right now, you'll be grateful later in life. You don't need to spend hours in the gym: a 30 minute walk is enough.

  • Develop good eating habits. There are loads of healthy, tasty, easy foods – start working more of them into your diet. Take little steps: you don't need to make radical changes.

  • If you smoke, make it your number one priority to quit. It's the best thing you can do for your health. (There's a list of benefits here.)
Interest-Rich
If you have a rich and varied set of interests, you're likely to have a fulfilling life. Spend time discovering what you really care about (whether or not it's what your parents or your friends want you to do). Having a life full of things which interest you is much more likely to make you happy than spending eight hours a day doing a job you dislike, just because it pays well.

Plus, when you get to retirement, you'll want hobbies and interests which give you meaning and purpose – and enjoyment.

You may well have lots of interests already. Are there any which you've neglected – perhaps because you think you don't have the time, or because they seem self-indulgent? If you feel that you lack any real hobbies or passions, make it your mission to find some! Try out new things (even ones which you think won't be right for you) ... and see if you surprise yourself.

Get interest-rich:
  • Spend time on things which you enjoy. It doesn't matter how "productive" or "worthwhile" they are ... all that matters is that you love them.

  • Adopt a "try anything once" attitude. It's easy to pre-judge a new activity without even giving it a go ... you might just find you love it.

  • Go for variety. We're often taught that we need to specialize in order to succeed ... but who's to say you can't be a doctor and a musician, or a teacher and an artist?
What sort of riches do you have in your life? Do you really need money to be rich – or would more time, better health or stronger interests make you happier?

Written on 5/3/2010 by Ali Hale. Ali writes a blog, Aliventures, about leading a productive and purposeful life (get the RSS feed here). As well as blogging, she writes fiction, and is studying for an MA in Creative Writing.Photo Credit: insouciance




Complete Your First Book with these 9 Simple Writing Habits




Your first book isn't going to happen by itself. If writing a novel or non-fiction book is something you've dreamed of, the only way to make that dream a reality is by putting it into action -- day by day.

And the best way to do that is to develop some simple habits that will make the dream a reality, one step at a time.

I've learned a lot about writing habits over the years. As a journalist, a freelance writer, and a speech writer, I've written thousands of articles over the last 17 years. I've also written a novel, numerous short stories, a couple ebooks, and am now working on a non-fiction book. It's a struggle, daily.

But I've found that certain habits go a long way, and after awhile, they're not as difficult as they are during the first week or so. Get past that first-week hump, and it'll get easier. And that dream of your first book will come true.

Note on forming habits: I recommend trying to form only one of these habits at a time, starting with the first one and working downwards. Focus on each for at least 2-3 weeks, until it is ingrained. Then move on to the next.

  1. Writing time
    The most important habit you can form is the daily writing habit. Even if you only write a page or two in a day, that's OK. The important thing is to do it. Eventually, you'll get there. Some days will be good, some will be not so good. Still sit down to write. It's important that you have one dedicated time for writing. You might do more, at other times, but make that one time be sacred. It might be first thing in the morning, right after lunch, right after work, or right before bed. Choose a time that you can do every single day, without fail. Dedicate at least 30 minutes to writing ... at first. Later, you'll need at least an hour, preferably two.

  2. Simple tools
    Get into the habit of focusing on the writing, and not the tools. You need to block out all distractions, especially Internet and email. Disconnect from the Internet, turn off the phones, plug some headphones into your ears to block out other distractions, clear your desk. If you use a pen and pad, choose simple ones. If you use a computer, use the simplest word processor or text editor possible. I recommend Dark Room or WriteRoom or some variant thereof -- just plain text, with no formatting, in full screen mode. It's you and the words and nothing else.

  3. Writing log
    This can be as simple as how many words you wrote today. Check your word count when you finish, and log it in. You could also add in notes about what you wrote, how you feel about it, etc., but the important thing is to log it in so you can see your progress over time. It helps enforce the daily writing habit, and it motivates you to keep going.

  4. Idea time
    You will probably be thinking about your book all day, if you're engrossed in it, but it's good to make it a habit to think about your book at certain times of the day. Exercise is a great time for that, as is house cleaning, driving, walking, government work, and any other activity where you don't need to think much. Make that time dedicated to thinking about the book.

  5. Capture ideas
    You will have ideas at different times of day, in different places. You will overhear dialog that you want to remember. You will think of brilliant character flaws while at the grocery store. You'll think of eccentric plot twists while driving. You need some way to capture ideas -- I suggest a notebook or index cards, but whatever works for you is fine. More importantly, you need to make it a habit to write your ideas down wherever you go.

  6. Just start
    There will be days when you don't feel like writing. That may actually be every day. But if you let that stop you, you'll never write a thing. Instead, you need to make it a habit to just start writing. It doesn't matter what you write, or whether it's any good. Just start. Make your fingers move. I find a good way to start is by typing something ritualistic, such as my byline on an article, or common formatting stuff. That gets my typing going, and then I just continue that. Once you get started, you might find that writing will come easier. In any case, get into the habit of just starting, no matter what.

  7. Write when inspired
    In addition to the routine writing time you designate (in Item #1 above), there will be other times when you'll want to write. Especially when you get a burst of energy or inspiration. You need to get into the habit of taking advantage of those times, and sitting down and writing immediately. Even if you're not at your computer, have your idea notebook, and just start writing. Inspiration comes at the most inopportune times -- you need to use it whenever it comes.

  8. Revise
    The dreaded word for many a writer, but revision is one of the most important aspects of the writing process. No one gets it right in the first draft. No one. If you aren't willing to revise, you might as well not write. But you don't need to develop this habit right away. Get into the writing habit first, and then begin developing rewrite habits. My suggestion is to begin half an hour of rewrite time, daily, after a month or two of developing the writing habit.

  9. Book bible
    Most writers won't bother with this, but that's a mistake. If you are serious about your writing, a book bible is a must-have. However, you can work on that last. This is ideally a binder with everything about your book contained in its pages: plot outline, character sketches, notes, bits of dialog, small details, scene description, research, etc. You'll find this extremely useful. The habit to develop: get a binder, write notes on characters, plot, scene, dialog, and keep it updated, as soon as you're done writing. So: write, log it, then update your book bible.
Written for Dumblittleman.com on 09/12/2007 by Leo Babauta and republished on 4/30/10. Leo offers advice on living life productively simple at his famous Zen Habits blog.Photo Credit: dragongirl




8 Reasons To Use Google Chrome As Your Primary Browser




Google Chrome, the web browser by Google, has been gaining market share steadily since the day it was introduced. And rightly so. It's by far the best browser I've used (and I have used a number of them). I think my productivity has increased significantly since I switched to Google Chrome as my primary browser.

In this article, I give 8 reasons to persuade you to switch to Chrome if you haven't yet. Now, nothing is perfect and there are some caveats here too, but, the pros definitely overshadow the cons and hence I recommend using Chrome.

  • It's Very Fast
    Yes, it is. You realize how fast it is when you click on the chrome icon to open the browser. It comes up in a flash, much faster than any other browser. As you start using it, you will find that the webpages also take less time to load.

    Chrome is based on Webkit. The Chrome team recently talked about the factors that make it so fast. Sounds convincing and I see it in action every time I use it.

  • Most Secure Browser
    Not that security vulnerabilities aren't discovered in Google Chrome, but, it is considered to be more secure than its counterparts like IE and Firefox. In fact, it was the only browser that survived the Pwn2Own competition where security experts tried to exploit all the browsers in search for bugs.

  • Simple Searching
    The address bar in Chrome also acts as the Google search bar. Hence you could just type your search query there and hit enter. It will quickly pull up the relevant Google results. You don't need to first go to Google in order to search. This saves time.

  • More Screen Real Estate
    One of the best things about Chrome is that it's minimalistic. The browser options are tucked away on the extreme right and that enables it to get you more screen real estate by providing a bigger browsing space.

    This feature is quite useful when you are on long webpages and need to scroll down frequently. It also helps bloggers like me to take better screenshots.

  • Quick Incognito Mode
    The incognito mode in Chrome is a nifty feature. Although private browsing mode was later introduced in Firefox and some other browsers too, Chrome's incognito wins hands down. I particularly like how quickly you could go incognito by pressing Ctrl+Shift+n.

    Apart from the obvious use of private browsing, there are several other uses of Chrome's incognito mode. Like, you could log into two Gmail accounts at once using this feature.

  • Default Bookmark Sync Option
    There's a "Synchronize my bookmarks" feature in Chrome which you can access by clicking on the wrench icon on the top right. You could use this feature to synchronize your Google account. That way you can access your bookmarks if you are using Chrome on a different computer.

  • No Restart Required When Installing Add-ons
    Yes, unlike Firefox where you need to restart your browser whenever you install a new extension or uninstall an old one, Chrome doesn't require that. And as someone who plays with a lot of add-ons, I can tell you, this feature saves a lot of time and frustration.

  • It's from Google!
    Right, I love Google. They are known for their quality products and hence I believe Chrome has better days ahead. Now, some would argue that it's giving too much power to one firm, but, considering that most of us are pretty much dependent on Google and its services, it doesn't harm to try out their browser too. Oh, by the way, I did write an article on how to free yourself from Google in case you are interested.
So that was about it. If you've been using Chrome as your main browser, I'd love to know how's the experience and what made you switch. Let's hear them in comments.

Cheers,

Abhijeet

Written on 4/3/2010 by Abhijeet Mukherjee. Abhijeet is a blogger and web publisher from India. He loves all things tech as long as it aids in productivity. He edits Guiding Tech, a blog that publishes useful guides, tutorials and tools. Check it out and subscribe to its feed if you like the site. You can also find him on Twitter. Photo Credit: Randy Zhang




Are You Unconsciously Wasting Hours Of Your Life?




Despite our interest in getting things done in the most efficient way possible, our minds and habits often work against us. Spend a moment and think of the following:

  • Do you make separate trips for every errand?
  • Do you check your email more than once a day?
  • Do you spend time searching for car keys or other objects you misplace?
  • Do you spend a lot of time on Facebook, Twitter or similar sites?
Many of these little and seemingly innocent actions can collectively add up to several hours of lost time each week. That time could have been spent with your family, on the beach, reading, or working on your first book.

You Can’t See The Forest For The Trees
Sometimes we can’t see the forest for the trees. This is a popular saying that means to get so caught up in the little things that you lose track of the bigger (and usually more important) picture.

Life is a continuous journey and a process of never-ending growth. Every single day brings an opportunity to learn something new and improve or change your life. As a result, our habits, routines and possessions grow in many small steps. Over time all these small steps can create a lot of clutter and inefficiency in our daily lives which can waste up to multiple hours every week that could be used for better things (like having fun or doing the things you are passionate about).

Often it takes a fresh or outside perspective to point these things out to you, and today I am that outside perspective. All you need to do is take a step back and observe your actions and routines objectively to be able to make some simple changes that could give you up to multiple hours of free time every week.

A personal analogy I am sure that you can relate to would be cleaning up of your room or house. Often things just accumulate for days or weeks before it gets too much and I decide to do a total clean-up and reorganization of my room. It’s the same with your routines, habits and actions in your daily life. Over time these routines and habits each consume a little bit of your time until you are left with days wondering how you can get anything done.

Pin-Point The Most Time-Consuming Actions

Most people have some sort of a daily or weekly routine. There are many actions, habits and chores that you do over and over again. Some of these actions take up a huge amount of time…time that could be better spent doing things you love.
Let’s do a little exercise to pin-point the actions that consume the most time. Why? So that you can make some changes to streamline your life and create many free hours of time every single week that you never had.

The Method To Analyze Your Actions:
  • Get a pen and a notepad.
  • Draw 14 columns (2 for each day of the week).
  • For each day of the week, name one column as ‘necessary’ and another as ‘unnecessary’.
  • Do some thinking and write down all your repetitive actions that you do on a daily or weekly basis but split them into ‘necessary’ and ‘unnecessary’ for each day. For example: sleeping and eating are necessary but watching TV is unnecessary.
The results will obviously differ for every person. Some people will have more actions in the ‘necessary’ column and others will have more in the ‘unnecessary’ column. The purpose of this exercise is that you are able to see how each of your 24-hour days is being spent.

Earlier, I mentioned the saying ‘Can’t see the forest for the trees’ with the above exercise in mind. Since all your actions and routines have grown over your life up to how they are today, there may be so many little and unnecessary things that you are doing but you are not able to see it. (You are unable to see the bigger picture because you are so caught up in the day-to-day actions and routines.)

Strategize For Efficiency

Now that you have pin-pointed the activities that make up most of your day, we are going to analyze them on a deeper level. Are things that you listed in the ‘necessary’ column really ‘necessary’ and how can you change them?
  • Combine Errands
    Do you make separate trips for work, groceries, gym and other activities? I used to do this a lot and for me a drive to and from town was 20 minutes every time. Sometimes I would drive 3 times a day for multiple errands…what an inefficient use of my time. Try to think how you can combine your errands. Can you reduce going to the grocery store from once a day to twice a week?

  • Simplify The Complicated
    Do you sit in traffic for a few hours every day? It may be worth considering moving closer to your work. Do you have a mailbox/dentist/doctor that is far away from you? Possibly get one that is closer to you. Do you have a garden that takes loads of time to maintain? Consider automating the sprinklers or replacing all those little flowerbeds with lawn.

    Spend some time to determine if anything in your life that is more complicated than it could be is worth keeping it that way. If not, change it.
  • Eliminate The Useless
    Personally I used to do a lot of unnecessary activities that not only consumed a lot of my time, these activities also did not make my life any better or give me any benefits. I am talking about things like Facebook, Twitter, Myspace, checking for email every hour and looking at my website statistics to see how many visitors I had on that day.

    For example, checking email and website analytics once a day saved me over an hour a week. I then deleted all my social networking profiles except for Facebook and Twitter, which I only use now to promote my blog and network with people I really want to be in touch with. No more idling on Facebook and reading what other (mostly unknown) people are up to. Above all, this time that I used to waste on social network sites has taught me nothing and has given me very little in return. The change of eliminating them has saved me a few hours every week that I can now use to do things I really enjoy or work on my business ideas.
Try The Changes For 30 Days
As with any new changes that you implement it is always a good idea to test them out for 30 days to see if there really is a benefit. I have read that it takes 21 days for a habit to take effect, which is why I mention a 30 day period of testing anything new.

You may find that your life is pretty optimal and you can only save an hour or less every week using the steps I outlined in the article. However, most people (my former self included) will be able to free up hours of their week that they can use to do something they love or work on something they are passionate about.

Written on 4/29/2009 by Diggy. Diggy writes all about self improvement at his blog UpgradeReality. If you enjoyed this post you can subscribe to his RSS Feed and never miss a new UpgradeReality post.Photo Credit: daniahell




The Hard Truths About Building Your Own Success




Have you noticed that society often looks at successful people in hopes of somehow copying their magic formula? I know I have done this and fallen into the trap - the trap of thinking, praying even, that there is one magic solution for success and that it can be replicated by anyone with enough sheer will and desire. Clearly this is not true.

I don't want to miscommunicate here; of course it makes sense to learn lessons from people who have achieved the goals we want. They did something right and some of their ingredients may indeed work in your success recipe too. As Tony Robbins says: "Success leaves clues".

Clues however are not the entire story and as mentioned above, this is your success plan. Realizing this and taking full responsibility for yourself makes a huge difference. Look at you, your desires, your abilities, and with that, your chances of actually being successful increase substantially.

Here are some key realizations that I believe you should consider along your path to success. Take one, or a few, and if they are counter to your current beliefs debate yourself on how this view impacts your plan.

  1. There is no magic formula
    Sometimes we have a warped way of looking at success as a magic formula to be cracked. Life in this ‘post magic formula cracking’ world is easy, abundant, problem free, but completely illusionary. The other point is that successful people have put the effort into achieving their success. Most of the time success hasn’t fallen into their lap. To achieve success in any area of life we need to put one foot in front of the other and move towards our goal.

  2. Life is never solved
    Life is never solved. Recently, I have started working on a self employed basis as a mentor. I have wanted to be self employed for a very long time, particularly doing work I love like mentoring, and it is great to finally do that. However, I have realized that success often brings new sets of challenges that we might not have previously thought about! I am acutely aware of being grateful for where I now am, but also aware now that I am here that there is no magical place to get to! Doing what you love everyday is great but it is not problem free.

  3. It really is about the journey
    While the end result may be a great new product, website, or service, it's the process of developing that idea that often builds your character and provides the most learning opportunities. Look back on something significant you have achieved. Now look at the lessons you learned along the way. Would you really swap them so you could have fast forwarded to the result? However difficult things may be it has made us who we are today.

  4. What’s the rush anyway?
    As society speeds up and we have more gadgets and technology to make life easier, we are getting used to quick fixes. If we don’t achieve something quickly we think it’s not worth achieving or that it is taking too long. Life isn’t a race. We don’t get a badge for the speed at which we travel through life. I sometimes find myself falling into that trap with my blog - thinking it should be more developed or have more subscribers. When I catch myself thinking like this, I try and take a step back and remind myself about what I enjoy about what I am doing and that building anything worthwhile takes time.

  5. Nothing replaces hard work
    Following on from my last point, there is no ‘quick fix’. Anything worthwhile does take time. We need to learn to develop the skills of being persistent and keeping the bigger picture in mind. I think this is why people sometimes say that personal development books don’t work. What they are forgetting is that the missing link is hard work. Reading a book or going to a seminar alone will not change our life. Knowledge, taking action, inserting inspiration, hard work and patience is what will make the difference.

  6. You can’t be taught ‘passion’
    It is for us alone to find our passion. No one can teach us their passion. Others can help us find our passion and can also share their experiences in a way that can help us find our own but our passion is fundamentally different for each of us. Our passion is a unique cocktail of our own inner whisperings, life experiences and individual skills and talents. It is our job to try new experiences in order to hunt our passion(s) down. For example, I didn’t realize I had a passion for blogging till I stumbled across the blogosphere last year whilst setting up my website for my coaching services.

  7. Trust yourself
    By all means, enlist the help of good mentors and learn from others who are further along a similar path. But, remember that we all have a unique path and it is our job to work out how to bring that to the fore. Sometimes the reason we look to others for the answer to ‘success’ is because we don’t trust ourselves. We don’t trust ourselves to do our own thing, to take a risk and to shine. We need to learn to trust ourselves. Start today, listen to what your intuition is saying and start doing what feels right for you.
By seeing through some of the illusions bandied around about success we can get clear on what we need to do and see the wood for the trees. Things become much easier once we take responsibility for our own success.

Written on 4/28/2010 by Jennifer Smith. Jen is a Life Coach and Personal Development blogger who can be found at Reach Our Dreams. You can connect with Jen on Twitter @reachourdreams or if you liked this article then why not subscribe to her RSS Feed? Photo Credit: Sugarmonster




How to Deal With Annoying People



Annoyed
We’re both familiar with irritating, frustrating and annoying people. Learning how to deal with them is an art-form, because what works for me, may not work for you.

There are a lot of facets that come into play when someone is annoying you. Are they bothering you, because you genuinely don’t think they ‘vibe’ with you? Or, is the universe sending someone to show you what you have to work on?

If you only take one thing away from this article, let it be this: honesty always works. The longer you try to be nice to someone, the more you’re making other people believe that you actually enjoying hanging out with them.

There’s no need to be unnecessarily blunt about it, but if someone becomes too pushy, you have to be honest about what’s going on and let them know. It sucks, but if you value your time, it has to be done, and it doesn’t have to be done in a harsh manner.

  • Ignoring
    Ignoring has to be one of the most common strategies you see people use. It can work well, but if the person is persistent, you can’t ignore them for long.

    Dealing with annoying people is always easier the more comfortable you are in your skin. If someone is bothering you, the best way to stop it is to tell the person, which I will talk about in a second.

  • Being Nice
    The first response we have is to be nice towards everyone. Being negative in any way is frowned upon, but what most forget is that telling the truth is more important than being nice. You have to respect yourself.

    Telling the truth doesn’t mean being rude or obnoxious in any way. You have to find your own groove, but chances are that you have to tell people what you think if you’ve got a small crowd bothering you all the time.

  • Being Honest
    If nothing else works, tell the person exactly what you feel. Again, being overly harsh is unnecessary. Just telling someone that you don’t want to hang out with them right now is not the end of the world.

    This takes some courage, but in the end, it is the most honest and simple way to deal with the situation. Luckily, most people don’t need to be told, because they are smart enough to pick up subtle hints that you aren’t interested.

  • Innovating
    Think about when you were last bothering someone; did they tell you to go away in a particularly effective and nice way?

    The way I often learn new things is by flipping the roles. If I want to learn how to tell people to go away, I look inside and think about if I’ve ever been in a position where someone else wanted me to go away, especially if it worked.

    Learning how to deal with annoying people is uncomfortable, because if you care about others, you want to be nice. It’s your first instinct, and that’s cool, but it doesn’t always work.

    When it becomes a problem is if you’re giving your time away to someone you don’t want to. Sometimes it takes more than being nice to resolve a problem in your life.

    The next time you’re in a situation like this, think about your options and the consequences they have.
Sometimes things aren’t what they seem, and most important of all, often the person you’re annoyed by is there to show you where you need to focus internally.

Written on 4/26/2010 by Henri Junttila. Henri is addicted to living a free and passionate life. He runs the Wake Up Cloud, where he shows you how you can learn how to find your passion and live consciously.Photo Credit: tourist_on_earth