not get annoyed by rude people

It’s been, oh, four or five days since I gave my notice. She hasn’t even acknowledged it. I know that she received my letter, because one of my coworkers mentioned something back to me that I had written in the letter to my boss. But I have yet to receive any kind of reply from the boss herself. She’s basically been refusing to communicate with me for the last several months, for no obvious reason. How unprofessional can a person get?!

I just keep reminding myself that in only a few days this will all be behind me.

So maybe I’m not as good at this yet as I thought I was. Was slam-dunked by some a**hole’s major rudeness yesterday. It affected me way more than it should have. I don’t want to explain the situation so I don’t have to re-live it… Nasty. But, it showed me that I still have a lot of work to do on this goal.

From the book “Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff (and it’s all small stuff)” I have learned a new technique for coping with rude people: imagine that everyone was put on earth to teach you something useful. Then when dealing with annoying/rude people, ask yourself… what is this person trying to teach me?

Let’s say you are dealing with a slow cashier at the supermarket… you could say that s/he is trying to teach you patience, or to empathize with people who have boring, unfulfilling jobs. Or when dealing with your mean relative, you could say s/he is trying to teach you to accept family for who they are rather than trying to make them the way you’d like them.

I’ve been practising this for a couple days and it’s really making a difference in how I see the world. Everything is so much more pleasant when you don’t have to see others as your personal nemesis.

What can I say… this is a hard habit to overcome. Though I do notice some improvement. I’m definitely more conscious of how I react to other people’s rudeness, and I would say that I am more relaxed at least most of the time. Every once in a while I laugh rather than get upset, because the absurdity of the situation just calls for a laugh. That helps tremendously. I also apply the “May the fleas of a thousand camels infest your armpits (...)” curse to rude people which, again, makes me laugh. I can’t remember the last time someone else’s rudeness ruined my day like it used to. These days I mostly let it roll off my back… though I do get upset with stuff of course. Just not nearly as much as I used to.

While driving I have found that listening to comedy is a good way to keep your cool. It’s much more fun to laugh at someone’s jokes than to pay attention to the weirdo who’s bullying you (or bullying someone else, as the case may be). Oh, also… I now have a smiley sticker on the back of my car, I figure maybe it’ll break up someone else’s pissy mood, thereby making driving safer for us all.

Oh and to all you tailgaters and pushy drivers out there… you may not have noticed it but on average you arrive at your destination around the same time you would have arrived if you had driven more considerately. Trust me, I have seen it happen over and over again… I see you approach in my rear view mirror… many freeway exits later you may be a car ahead of me or you may be ten cars behind me. But, in the process you’ve wasted gas and made life unpleasant for everyone including yourself.

Some dude decided not to let me get over into his lane—I was trying to get off the freeway and he kept changing his speed to match mine and keep the gap in front of him just small enough not to let me in. Why do people act that way???

I did eventually get over but it was at the very last second. Hmmmm… I definitely need to work on not letting that kind of behavior bother me, just not sure how.

I get so frustrated by those rude drivers who use every onramp and offramp as a racetrack to pass those already on the freeway; who tailgate me or cut in front of me, causing me to slam on the brakes/speed up or run into them. I HATE when others put me in danger just so they can get into my lane and “get there” 10 seconds earlier. I get so angry that I can feel my blood pressure rising and I know I don’t drive safely when that happens. Sooooo… I need to work on keeping my calm regardless of how stupidly others act around me. First step: check out http://www.drdriving.org/articles/testimony.htm and read some.