Combatting the Bitter Ones with Resolve

 

Surely we have all encountered these gravely dissatisfied people in our lifetimes.  You know the ones I mean.  Every other sentence is a complaint.  Good things rarely seem to happen in their lives.  They tend to be suck-ups and tattle-tales; always eager to make themselves look good while constantly pointing out the faults of others.  These types of people are generally bad listeners.  If you tell one of them that there was a recent death in your family, they straight-away begin to tell you how that’s just like what happened to them once.  No comforting words.  No real concern.  If you tell them a piece of good news, they immediately break into how something their own life just recently fell through or fell short.  No congratulations.  No celebration.  To put it simply,  these people can suck the joy out of almost any room and seem to expend great amounts of energy in effort to do just that.  They are nay-saying, side-ways talking,  day-dreading pains in the asses!

So how do we co-exist peacefully when working or living closely with these people? 

1. Ignore the crap!  We don’t have to ignore them in general, but when they begin to prattle on and on about how hard their life is or to complain about the same thing they always do-tune them out.  That sets a boundary with them and maybe they’ll pick up on it.  If they stop getting a response and eliciting our sympathies, maybe they’ll stop.

2. Stop sharing with them!  If we stop including them in our own experiences we also stop the disappointing, selfish, let-down of a response that we generally get from them.  Likewise, if we cut them out of our daily tidbits they may just get the point.  Again, we are attempting to set a boundary.

3. Break into song and dance!  Whenever the crab apple in your life goes into one of those ridiculous bad moods because life isn’t going their way at that moment…break into joyful song and dance.  This will irritate the crap out of them and disarm them.  If you don’t even acknowledge their tantrum and above all don’t let it change your day they will have failed in bullying the environment around them with their negative nancy shenanigans.

4. Above all else RESOLVE in your heart that you will no longer be a victim of the grumblers!  No one likes to be a victim anyway right?  Right!  The longer that we allow these sour apples to spoil our days, the longer they will!  They have endless energy in the area of day-wrecking and unless we resolve ourselves to be un-influenced, we will continue to dread every sight of them and every hour spent in a room with them.

I suppose we could also trip them every chance we get and make fools of them at every possible turn.  While that may bring us some or great satisfaction, I urge you to implement the four step process first.    This will function as a sort of “due process” for the bitter people.  If due process does not work however, and you find yourself still tortured by some relentless Grumpy McGee, by all means resort to this last/un-numbered method!

*What are your methods for dealing with these people?  Please leave your suggestions & comments!

*Also note if you would like to join the JUST SAY NO to NEGATIVE NANCIES alliance!