7 Stoic Strategies To Deal With Jerks
Ryan Holiday and Will Guidara discuss six Stoic strategies for handling difficult people by staying composed and using hard encounters to build character.
The gist
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Marcus Aurelius taught that difficult people are inevitable, so expecting them reduces surprise and emotional reactivity when they show up.
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Respond to rudeness with kindness and dishonesty with honesty, treating each clash as a practice rep for the character you want.
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Civil rights leaders trained at the Highlander School to withstand provocation without reacting, showing that non-reaction is a learnable skill.
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Assuming someone's bad behavior comes from personal pain rather than malice makes it easier to extend grace without draining yourself.
Also mentioned
5:45
Highlander School
· "There was a school, it was called the Highlander School in Tennessee, that all the great civil rights..."
10:32
Charitable Assumption
· "The thing that I think is so helpful in those moments in leadership and service, or in just moving through..."
15:42
Meditations
· "And look, it's worth remembering that the famous passage in Meditations about how the obstacle is the way,..."
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