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How to destroy your peace of mind

By: None

If there’s one sure way to destroy your peace of mind, it’s having unrealistic expectations of others.

In an ideal world, everybody would act the way you want them to act, there would be no friction or conflict, and life would chug along smoothly all the time. But we don’t live in an ideal world and should quit acting as if we do.

Most people are self-centered, so they behave in their own best interests, not yours. If you think about it for a moment, that’s exactly how you act, isn’t it? So why should others act differently than you do?

We get upset because the President doesn’t do what we want. We get angry when we get put on hold on the phone. We fume because other drivers have taken all the parking spaces close to the store.

But if you were President, you’d do what you thought best, even if others disagree. If you were running that customer service department, you’d keep your budget down by putting people on hold instead of hiring more representatives. If you had first choice, you’d also take the parking place closest to the store.

Somewhere along the way, we each got the mistaken notion that the world revolves around us, that others should cater to our wants and needs and that we should never have to wait or be treated rudely. If we persist in that fantasy, we set ourselves up for constant frustration.

Most of our agitation is self-created because we have unrealistic expectations of others. Our ego gets bruised. We’re shocked because we’re treated with disrespect.

Peace of mind demands that we overlook the selfishness of others. When we anticipate that other people will think of themselves first, we’re not disappointed. When we give up the idea that we deserve special treatment, we defuse most insults.

No one wants to be a doormat. Our self-respect requires that we stand up for our rights, but when we’re prepared for less than perfect treatment, we’re not shocked when we receive it.

So what’s the solution? Should we resign ourselves to being treated like a number instead of a human being? Should we have such low expectations of government leaders and business people that we routinely put up with incompetence and shoddy service?

The answer lies somewhere in between. Our only recourses with bumbling politicians is writing a letter or voting against them. A calm, well thought-out complaint can often get a business to improve its customer service if they think they might lose customers.

We can maintain our peace of mind when we acknowledge that every person has a couple choices in a given situation. They can choose to agree with us or disagree. We also have choices if they disagree with us. We can make a catastrophe out of the incident or we can regard it objectively and dispassionately.

When we understand that our peace of mind cannot be taken from us, that only we have the power to surrender it, we become disturbed by fewer and fewer nuisances. When we compare the preciousness of peace of mind against the fleeting satisfaction of becoming upset, our choice is easy to make.

[Article Source: http://www.positivearticles.com]

You can keep your peace of mind in spite mistreatment by others, if you remember one simple truth.

Jack Zavada helps single people enjoy life to their fullest potential at his popular web site, www.inspiration-for-singles.com

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