How Bad Do You Want It? (Success) HD

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7 Personality Traits of a Great Leader

If you want to be a great leader who attracts quality people, the key is to become a person of quality yourself. Leadership is the ability to attract someone to the gifts, skills and opportunities you offer as an owner, as a manager, as a parent. Leadership is the great challenge of life.

What’s important in leadership is refining your skills. All great leaders keep working on themselves until they become effective. Here’s how:

1. Learn to be strong but not impolite.

It is an extra step you must take to become a powerful, capable leader with a wide range of reach. Some people mistake rudeness for strength. It’s not even a good substitute.

2. Learn to be kind but not weak.

We must not mistake weakness for kindness. Kindness isn’t weak. Kindness is a certain type of strength. We must be kind enough to tell someone the truth. We must be kind enough and considerate enough to lay it on the line. We must be kind enough to tell it like it is and not deal in delusion.

3. Learn to be bold but not a bully.

It takes boldness to win the day. To build your influence, you’ve got to walk in front of your group. You’ve got to be willing to take the first arrow, tackle the first problem, discover the first sign of trouble. Like the farmer, if you want any rewards at harvest time, you have got to be bold and face the weeds and the rain and the bugs straight on. You’ve got to seize the moment.

4. Learn to be humble but not timid.

You can’t get to the high life by being timid. Some people mistake timidity for humility. But humility is a virtue; timidity is a disease. It’s an affliction. It can be cured, but it is a problem. Humility is almost a God-like word—a sense of awe, a sense of wonder, an awareness of the human soul and spirit, an understanding that there is something unique about the human drama versus the rest of life. Humility is a grasp of the distance between us and the stars, yet having the feeling that we’re part of the stars.

5. Learn to be proud but not arrogant.

It takes pride to build your ambitions. It takes pride in your community. It takes pride in a cause, in accomplishment. But the key to becoming a good leader is to be proud without being arrogant. Do you know the worst kind of arrogance? Arrogance from ignorance. It’s intolerable. If someone is smart and arrogant, we can tolerate that. But if someone is ignorant and arrogant, that’s just too much to take.

6. Learn to develop humor without folly.

In leadership, we learn that it’s OK to be witty but not silly; fun but not foolish.

7. Learn to deal in realities.

Deal in truth. Save yourself the agony of delusion. Just accept life as it is—the whole drama of life. It’s fascinating.
Life is unique. Leadership is unique. The skills that work well for one leader may not work at all for another. However, the fundamental skills of leadership can be adopted to work well for just about everyone: at work, in the community and at home.

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The 5 LESSONS In Life People Learn TOO LATE

Five great speakers sharing their wisdom. Enjoy

How To Be a Better Person Using These 11 Simple Steps

Do you recognize this scenario? You find yourself reacting or handling changes in a way that feels less than graceful. You begin feeling down and wondering why you can’t seem to do better. Most of us have been there. Don’t worry; there’s always a way to improve.  If you want to be a better person the phrase is “out with the old and in with the new.”

To help you get started, here’s a list of 11 things that will help you on your road to self-improvement.

 

1. Review Your Strengths.

Don’t cop out and say you don’t have any strengths. Of course you do! You can use the strong points in your personality to support you as you make yourself into a better person. Make a list of the things you like about yourself and post it somewhere you can see it. It isn’t arrogant or narcissistic; it’s actually a great tool to use whenever you’re feeling down on yourself. If you’re reading this then the odds are that you’re already a pretty decent person. Sometimes you just need a little reminder!

2.   Know What Needs Improvement

Aren’t lists grand? It’s time for you to write down the things you don’t like about yourself.  Evermore, it’s important to recognize where you can use improvement so that you can take the necessary steps to change yourself. It’s important to remember, however, as you start your list, that this isn’t meant to make you more self critical. In fact, it’s meant to empower you! You’ll find that the negative things in life tend to have more control over you when they’re hidden than when they’re recognized!

3.   Work on One Thing at a Time

Try not to work on too much at once; if you get overwhelmed you may find yourself giving up. Choosing the thing on your list that bothers you the most is a great idea! It will make you feel like you’re on top of the world and will also make the rest of your list seem easy!

4. Positive Affirmations

This is something you can do in the morning upon waking up and in the evening before going to bed. Choose something you’d like to accomplish in the coming day such as “I will be more patient at work.” or “I will be calm under stress.” It’s important to use positive words such as “I will,” instead of negatives like “I won’t.” You’ll find that when it comes to affirmations, word choice is always important.

5. Meditate

When you hear the word “meditation” silent monks sitting cross-legged on the floor of a Buddhist temple may come to mind. However, meditation is actually extremely diverse and you’ll find that you can tailor it to your individual needs. For example, some people meditate while taking a nice easy walk while others sit in a garden and contemplate something beautiful. Some people even use doodling or coloring to calm their mind. There really is no wrong way to do it, so long as it’s working for you, don’t worry about what everyone else is doing. Take it and make it your own. You’ll find that any meditating you can do is a great way to become a more balanced person and to solidify the lessons you’ve learned during the day.

6. Find a Physical Activity That You Enjoy

Wait, how can exercise make me a better person? Well, part of becoming a better person is about feeling better in general, and exercise is one of the best tools for improving your energy levels and your mental health. It’s also a great way to get ready for meditation. You may try something like yoga or you may just go for a jog or swim. It doesn’t matter so much what type you choose, so long as you enjoy it enough to keep doing it.

7. Don’t be Afraid of Change

To be a better person, you’re going to need to learn to accept change. Change is what makes us better and it’s what makes life interesting, so learn to embrace it and go with the flow. You don’t want to be like that old man down the street who does nothing but complain about how much things have changed since “his day.” Why shouldn’t today be his day? Why shouldn’t it be your day too? Why don’t you read some of these awesome quotes about change to get you started?

8. Honor Your Friends and Family

Remember this. You DON’T exist in a vacuum. You coexist with friends, family, coworkers, and millions of other people. How you act and what you do affects the people around you, so be aware of how you’re treating them. Remember, most of them are trying just as you are and they also face daily trials and hardships. If you feel up to it you can even ask a friend or a family member for help. One of the best ways to stay on track after deciding to make changes is to have someone other than yourself to hold you accountable.

9. Listen to Your Parents and Grandparents

Why learn all your life lessons the hard way? Do you realize that there are people much older than yourself who have already learned them and who are likely more than happy to share? There is also a ton of advice written on the internet that may be inspiring or motivating to you. Don’t feel you have to figure everything out yourself. That’s just your ego talking.

10. Believe in Yourself

Yes, it may seemed over-said to the point of cliche, but there’s a reason for that. You’ll never make the changes that you want to make in life unless you learn to believe in yourself. Remember that you’re amazing just for being willing to improve yourself and that there has never been an individual quite like you to walk this earth. You’re up to the task, and if you want to be a better person, then you will succeed.

11. Try Writing in Journal

Want to really see how the changes you make are affecting you positively? Write each day about how you feel your day went, the challenges you faced, what you were proud of, and how you could have done better. Then you can look back and see just how far you’ve come.

Are you ready to take these steps to improve yourself and your life? It may not always be easy to change long-ingrained habits, but it’s probably not as difficult as you think either. None of us are perfect. We are all on a never ending journey of self improvement and self-realization. If you make an honest effort each day to change the things that you don’t like about yourself and strengthen your positive traits, you will start to realize that you are more wonderful than you could have ever imagined. You can enrich not only your own life, but also all of the lives you touch around you.

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Jim Rohn: Learn This, and You'll Never Be The Same

Do you think this is amazing?

The Qualities of Enterprising People

An enterprising person is one who comes across a pile of scrap metal and sees the making of a wonderful sculpture. An enterprising person is one who drives through an old decrepit part of town and sees a new housing development. An enterprising person is one who sees opportunity in all areas of life.


To be enterprising is to keep your eyes open and your mind active. To be skilled enough, confident enough, creative enough and disciplined enough to seize opportunities when they present themselves. A person with an enterprising attitude says, “Find out what you can do before taking action.” Do your homework. Do the research. Be prepared. Be resourceful. Do all you can in preparation of what’s to come.

Enterprising people always see the future in the present. Enterprising people always find a way to take advantage of a situation, not be burdened by it. And enterprising people aren’t lazy. They don’t wait for opportunities to come to them—they go after the opportunities. Enterprise means always finding a way to keep yourself actively working toward your ambition.

You need two things to be enterprising:

1. Creativity—to see what’s out there and to shape it to your advantage. You need creativity to look at the world a little differently. You need creativity to take a different approach—to be different.

2. Courage—to be creative. You need courage to see things differently, courage to go against the crowd, courage to take a different approach, courage to stand alone if you have to, courage to choose activity over inactivity.

Being enterprising doesn’t just relate to the ability to make money. Being enterprising also means feeling good enough about yourself, having enough self-worth to seek advantages and opportunities that will make a difference in your future. By doing so, you will increase your confidence, your courage, your creativity and your self-worth–your enterprising nature.

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Getting things done

How do you get things done?

When are you most productive?

What things are you getting done?

If we want to move the needle in our life, we need to get the right things done, at the right time, in the right way.

Here is what it looks like for me.

First, I determine the #1 thing I can get done for the day that also moves me closer to my big goals.

This is the right thing. Second, I block my time first thing in the morning before the rest of the world is awake. This is the right time.

Third, I invest time filling myself up with God's Word and prayer right before I focus and work on the right thing. This is the right way.

What works for you?


Tips:
Pick your most productive time of the day.

Shut out all distractions - phone, text, email, social media, interruptions.

Invest the first part of the time filling yourself up. Then, work on your #1 priority that moves you closer to your big goal.


Do it EVERY DAY.

Two questions for you:
Do you think this strategy will work?
Do you have big goals and dreams?

You know what to do!

Keep me posted.

You are Born To Win, so go ahead and Live To Win!

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Quote - Dr John Demartini

You Will Be Poor If You Do This! | The 7 Financial Sins

How to invest in an inflationary economy

A true look at recent inflation and what it means for you

 

After the last financial crisis, the US government began a program of quantitative easing (QE), aka printing money.

As a refresher, QE is when the Fed bolsters its balance sheet by buying treasuries to keep interest rates low. It’s like if you or I printing dollars to pay off our credit cards.

At the time, I wrote about the dangers of inflation this would cause. Almost everyone expected that the inflation we would see would be consumer inflation, i.e., when the price of goods goes up, sometimes rapidly. After all, you can’t pump dollars into the economy through artificially low interest rates without those dollars flowing into goods and raising prices. It’s pretty simple economics.

The official inflation stance

Yet, according to the official measurements of inflation, there hasn’t been much consumer inflation. As you can see from this chart by Statistica, it’s actually historically lower.




How could this be?

The first thing to explain this is that inflation is happening, but it’s not most readily apparent because of the way the US government measures inflation. As the old saying goes, “There are three kinds of lies: lies, damn lies, and statistics.” What does this mean? Simply that governments can use statistics to tell any story they want by manipulating the numbers. In this case, since 1990, it’s been clear that the government wants to tell the story that inflation is low.

A different look at inflation

Traditionally, inflation was measured by a fixed basket of goods period after period. This basket of goods was an agreed upon basket of what it would take to have a good standard of living.
But as shadowstats.com writes, that formula was changed in 1990 to match a popular academic concept called “constant level of satisfaction,” as a “true cost of living concept.”

The general argument was that changing relative costs of goods would result in consumer substitution of less-expensive goods for more-expensive goods. Allowing for a substitution of goods within the formerly fixed-basket, the maximization of the “utility” of money held by consumers would allow attainment of “constant level of satisfaction” for the consumer. This type of inflation-measure is more appropriate for the GDP concept—where it is used today—measuring shifting weightings with actual consumption, rather than with the fixed weightings needed to assess the costs of maintaining a constant standard of living

In simple terms, the statisticians made the assumption that if you were buying steak you would switch to less expensive hamburger if the price went up. This allowed the government to constantly switch the goods in the basket in order to manipulate the inflation rate to a lower rate, rather than to track the same goods each period.

Why would they do this? Shadowstats.com gets into the details, but basically it was a way for the government to save money by, for instance, not having to increase Social Security payouts to match true inflation.

Matching the 1980 measurement method against the 1990 method, it’s easy to see why.












Looking at this chart, you can see that inflation over the last couple years has been hovering around 10%, among the highest it’s been since the 1980s, when the calculation was changed. Of course you don’t really need to be told this. Almost everyone I know feels the fact that prices have gone up for pretty basic things.
But outside of the argument of how to calculate inflation, there is another indicator that this flow of cash from QE had resulted in significant inflation, and that is asset inflation.

Measuring inflation by asset prices

As Bloomberg reports, “Quantitative easing, which saw major central banks buying government bonds outright and quadrupling their balance sheets since 2008 to $15 trillion, has boosted asset prices across the board.”

Writer Jean-Michael Paul continues, “From 2008 to 2015, the nominal value of the global stock of investable assets has increased by about 40 percent, to over $500 trillion from over $350 trillion. Yet the real assets behind these numbers changed little, reflecting, in effect, the asset-inflationary nature of quantitative easing.”

Because assets are not tracked in a basket of goods, it becomes easy to look at them objectively and see their inflationary results, especially when compared to things like earnings.

In this case, the stock market has skyrocketed but there has not been performance behind the companies represented on the stock market to justify the rapid and record growth. Currently the price to value ratio for stocks is about 60% higher than average. But there are plenty of people who want to use statistics to suppress that too.

What high inflation means for you

Establishing that inflation is high, the question becomes, what does it mean for you and what should you do about it?

First, it’s important to understand that inflation can make you poorer. For instance, employees are hurt by inflation because they can only sell their time, and time generally does not hedge against inflation well. Raises, if they come at all, generally come on an annual basis after inflation—not with it. And when inflation is underreported, raises hardly come at all.

Additionally, people who are deep in credit card debt or who have interest ARM loans are hurt by inflation because the Fed generally raises interest rates to combat inflation. Much bad debt is based on adjustable interest rates that go up during times of inflation, making debt payments more expensive. Some of you are probably experiencing this right now.

Finally, people who play by the old rules of money are hurt by inflation because they believe it is wise and prudent to save money in the bank. But the bank is smart, not dumb. And the bank plays by the new rules of money. They pay interest on money that doesn’t keep up with inflation. Money loses purchasing power as the bank uses your money to make more money.

Using inflation to get richer

The good news is that inflation doesn’t have to make you poorer. In fact, you can use it to get richer. I use a very simple formula to get richer from inflation: leverage and hedging.

I play the bank’s game. I borrow money from the bank at a fixed rate, buy a cash flowing asset that covers the debt payment, and using less of my own money increases my return on investment.
In an inflationary economy, if the debt payment is fixed, it becomes less of a cost as the dollar loses purchasing power and my investments and income grow.

The reason my investments and income grow is because I purchase assets that hedge against inflation. For instance, in inflationary economies, rents generally rise. When I purchase investment property, the debt payment stays the same while my rents rise due to inflation. This creates more cash flow. I owe the bank only the agreed payment. The rising costs for rent flow straight into my pocket.
The same thing happens for businesses. As the cost of goods rise for consumers, businesses can adjust their pricing and benefit from inflation.

This works because business owners and investors aren’t selling time. They’re selling product that hedges against inflation. They are in control. Employees aren’t in control of their product—time—nor are they in control of their money (the bank or mutual fund is).

One other thing I do to hedge against inflation is invest in commodities. Generally that has been oil, gold, and silver. These are great investments when there is inflation. They’re not great when there’s deflation.

Therefore, while I believe they are good investments for me, they’re not good investments for everyone—especially people who are still learning about the economy and investing who may not be able to react quickly to changing economic conditions.

At the end of the day, what I’ve been preaching all along—invest for cash flow—is the safest and soundest strategy that will serve you well in an inflationary economy. It’s a sure way to grow richer.

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15 Unexpected Things You Should be Thankful For in Life

We all have our ups and downs in our life. Sometimes it is hard to see the positive. Sometimes you feel overwhelmed and your problems seem endless and unsolvable. The easiest thing is to just admit defeat and accept your current state of down as a permanent reality. However, you should always look at the bright side and positives even when everything seems dark and gloom. There is an educational experience in everything and it all depends on your attitude and mindset. Here are 15 unexpected things to be grateful in life:

1. Enemies:

Enemy is a strong word. In this context, it can stand for a bad neighbor or an annoying, overly competitive colleague. These people bug the hell of us on a daily basis, but we should still be thankful for having them in our lives. However, these are the people who push us to go that extra mile in mundane things we wouldn’t even think twice about. Your Christmas decoration is a bit nicer than it would be just because you want to impress and outdo your frenemy neighbor, but everyone around you two will benefit in the magic of amazing decorations and spirit of the holidays.

2. Fewer people in your life:

If you have ever gone to a high school reunion you were probably glad to see all those familiar faces you have amazing memories with. Over the years your big social circle grew smaller and smaller. Now you are left with a small but tight circle of friends for life. Be thankful that you are surrounded by people who genuinely care for you and have your back no matter what!

3. Bad relationships:

We have all had them. Bad relationships are like a rite of passage we all must go through at a certain point in life. They are extremely difficult to go trough and leave a bad mark on you when they are done. When they are done you need to hold on and take a minute to reflect. See what type harmful behavior you demonstrated and how avoid it in the future. You will also know how to recognize the signs of a potentially bad relationship and you will be able to avoid them.

4. Sudden breakups:

One of the hardest things that can happen to you is for your significant other to break up with you when you weren’t expecting it at all. It is terrible to experience, but in retrospect, after some time has passed it will show you how strong of a person you can be in difficult times.

5. Failure:

Every failure just means an opportunity for something new. You may have invested time and energy in an idea that is ultimately just not that good. Having an end to a project will open up your mind and time for new ones. Your next one could be brilliant!

6. Sadness:

When you are sad it just means that you are an emotional being that is capable of caring. You have the ability to empathize and connect with others on an emotional level. You should consider yourself lucky to have this ability. It is better to be sad sometimes than to have no emotion at all. Being sad just means you can be joyful when the time comes.

7. Die hard 1:

I know that we are all probably thankful for this masterpiece anyway, but it needs to get a shout out! It is the greatest action film ever, and as a bonus, you can watch it with your girlfriend and she will like it! Trust me I have tried. I am single now, but I don’t think it is related to Die Hard in any way!

8. Being let go from a bad job:

You see many people around that are miserable in their current jobs. They are too afraid to quit and make that leap into the unknown. They are tucked in the false sense of financial security, and they think that this justifies their unhappiness. Sometimes being let go is a blessing in disguise, as you are free to pursue your true interests and passion.

9. Delay:

Amazing things are worth waiting for. Just think how exciting it is to plan out an exotic vacation after an eternity of being stuck in the office. You know that at the end of the road there is an amazing trip waiting for you to experience it and enjoy it. It will keep you motivated and it will keep you going until it’s time to pack your bags.

10. Missed opportunities:

Each of us has a few missed opportunities that they regret not pursuing. Maybe you missed your chance on an exciting new business venture, or maybe you just didn’t muster up the courage to approach that cute girl that smiled at you. You know that you are thinking about how stupid it was not to chase this, so next time when you recognize something that could be great you will definitely go for it!

11. When they are out of your favorite donuts at the bakery:

Hey, you said it yourself, you wanted to eat healthier. We all know that the work day is more bearable when it starts with a cup of coffee and a delicious treat, but your stomach and blood sugar levels will be grateful for this blessing in disguise. Try and opt for a healthier alternative instead!

12. First job after college:

It usually totally sucks and you hate it. Just always keep in mind that it is an investment in something better that will come after. It is a stop on the journey towards the job you want to have.

13. Diet:

We know it’s hard, we know you hate it, but stick to it. Everyone that has gone through a diet can testify how satisfying it is to accomplish something by yourself and for yourself. Nobody can do it instead of you.

14. Tech malfunctioning:

Today, we are all addicted to our technology. When was the last time you went anywhere without your phone? All people in a larger group seem to do now-and-days is stare at their screens. Don’t despair if your phone or tablet breaks for a day or two. Instead, go out have a hike, fly a kite, do all those wonderful things we all used to do but are kind of forgetting now.

15. This very moment:

I know there are a lot of us currently going through tough times. It seems that the world is dark around us and there is nothing we can be happy or grateful for. But be thankful, life is wonderful and the hard times just make us appreciate the good times even more. Keep your chin up because as Rocky said: “It`s not how hard you can hit, it`s how hard you can get hit and still keep going”. Words to live by. Good times are coming and the hardships will just be a memory. Eventually they will turn into a good story about how to overcame everything.

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How to Overcome Frustration: 3 Simple but Effective Steps

Frustration. It winds you up and can take so much out of you.

Because it not only sucks energy but also distracts you and can steal quite a bit of time.
So what can you do?

Well, sometimes that frustration can actually be a positive and can give you a new idea or angle on things. Or it can give you the power to keep going just a little bit more until you reach your goal.

But when you start going in circles, when the frustration just makes you mad or your mind foggy and the day is starting to slip through your fingers then there are steps you can take.

There are ways to turn such a state of mind or day around.
Into something better. Into something more helpful. And into something that will make you feel better again.

Step 1: Be here now.
When you are frustrated then you are often somewhere in the future in your mind. Somewhere you wish you would be. Or you are reliving a stumble or failure from your past.
Snap out of those headspaces and calm down by focusing your mind and attention on what is now, right here at this moment.

You can do so by for example:

• Focusing on your breathing. Sit down, close your eyes and just focus on the air going and out of your nose for 1-2 minutes. Take calm and slightly deeper breaths than usual and breathe with your belly and not your chest.
• Focus on what is around you at this time. The sun shining in through your window. The kids playing out in the street and the cars and people going by. The smells and feeling of the clothes and warmth of the sun on your skin. Do this for 1-2 minutes to get your attention back to the present moment.

Step 2: Appreciate what you do have.
After you have pulled your attention back to where it can be most helpful focus it on what is still positive in your life.

The quickest and easiest way to do so is to focus it on appreciating what you do have.
A favorite of mine during this step is the important things we may sometimes take for granted.  Like for instance:

• A warm home and a roof over your head.
• Plenty of drinkable water.
• Not having to go hungry.
• Access to the internet.
• Your friends and family.

Spend a few minutes on this and you’ll find much to be grateful for.

Step 3: Focus on what you can do right now.
With your attention in the present moment and your mood a more grateful and positive one it is now time to get constructive about what frustrates you.

You can do that by asking yourself:
What is one small step I can take right now to improve this situation?
It may be to see what you can learn from what frustrates you and to try another path towards your goal.

Or it could be to try one more time and to keep going (because not all things in life will come to you the first, second or third time you try).

Or it could be you simply realizing that you may have taken on a bit much lately or things have been tough and that you need to take this evening or a few days to just relax, take care of yourself and perhaps simplify a bit.
So that you can recharge and then get back into moving towards what you want out of your life in a more focused way.

 

Bonus tips to reduce or prevent frustration:

Make note of your triggers and see what you can do about them.
What triggers your frustration?

Is it when your partner doesn’t take out the trash as you had agreed? Or when you’re not making progress as fast you like with your career or hobby? Or when your phone’s interrupting your work all too often?

Whatever it might be, first ask yourself:
 What can I do to prevent this trigger in the first place?

For example, put your phone in silent mode or airplane mode and then get back to people during 1-3 scheduled times throughout your workday.

If you can’t prevent it then ask yourself:
What can I do to reduce the frustration caused by this trigger?

For instance, if you get frustrated with delays or waiting time while on your daily commute then ask your friends or google for answers for how others handle this common issue.

You may discover that one helpful solution is an audio book or podcast to listen to divert your attention and to get something good out of the situation while you’re waiting.

Remember: you’re human (and so is everyone else).
Perfectionism towards yourself or others does most often lead to plenty of frustration and disappointment. So set your standards both for others and yourself at a human level rather than at perfection.

Accept that sometimes you will make mistakes, have setbacks and not reach your goals when you’d like to. And so will people around you too.

Work from that perspective both with yourself and others and when there is a setback then focus on what you can learn to improve and to do better the next time.

Talk it out (instead of keeping it bottled up).

When you talk a frustration over with someone then it can help you to start seeing it from a more level-headed perspective as you vent.

And your friend that’s listening may have one or couple of good pieces of advice from his or her own experience. Or the two of you can start coming up with a plan for how you can overcome or at least reduce this frustrating situation.

Communicate as directly as you can.
People can’t read your thoughts and you can’t read theirs.

So avoid trying to hint, guess or be passive-aggressive and go for simple, straightforward and calm communication as best you can.

It can be difficult to do right at that moment but it will most often save you a lot of unnecessary frustration, tension and misunderstandings in your relationships.

Source

Quote - Dr John Demartini