Home Stories 8 Ways Smart People Successfully Handle Toxic People

8 Ways Smart People Successfully Handle Toxic People

SHARE

Liars, manipulators, narcissists, complainers, Negative Nancies, and gossip mongers are just a few of the people who radiate toxicity. Just like toxins in the environment enter your body and poison it, these people can enter your mind, poison your thoughts, and leave you feeling mentally, emotionally, and physically drained.

Toxic people are everywhere around you – it’s just impossible to avoid them. It could be your friend, your colleague, your partner, or a family member. So, I’m sure you’ve already met one before and you know how difficult it is to stay positive and motivated in their presence.

These people can suck the life out of you and hinder your progress. Of course, if you allow them to.

Luckily, there are ways used by smart people which enable you to effectively deal with toxic people and save yourself from their poisonous claws. Smart people are excellent at controlling their emotions and reactions when faced with a toxic person and they rely on both their judgment and instincts to handle toxic people swiftly and successfully.

Here’s how they do that:

1. They’re self-aware.

Smart people have a good knowledge of their personality, thoughts, emotions, and behavior. Their sense of awareness is a very important and powerful tool in preventing toxic people from pushing their buttons.

Smart people are aware that there will always be someone who will try to manipulate, lie to, and criticize them so as to “knock them off their game.”

Yet, they always try to stay in control of their emotions. They know that if they allow themselves to lose their temper, this will make it easier for the toxic person to manipulate them.

2. They set clear boundaries.

A smart person eliminates anything and anyone they perceive as a threat to their ability and efforts to remain productive and effective. Therefore, when they notice someone has a negative influence on them and impedes their progress, be that deliberately or unintentionally, they immediately take action to counteract this.

Yet, they won’t be rude and offensive, instead, they’ll make themselves clear in a calm, civilized manner.

3. They effectively manage their energy.

Smart people don’t allow a toxic person’s negative and irrational behavior to drive them crazy and drain their energy. They make sure they maintain their energy supply as this helps them deal with negative external influences more easily and effectively, and of course, this includes toxic people.

4. They concentrate on the task at hand.

When a smart person has an important task to complete, they don’t allow anything and anyone to distract them. And there’s definitely not a worse distraction than the irritating, unreasonable, negative behavior of a toxic person.

If you’re not careful and if you allow yourself to play their vicious game, you can easily forget about the task you’re on, which is exactly what the toxic person wants. Yet, smart people make sure they always concentrate on what’s in front of them irrespective of who is around them.

5. They rely on other people for support.

When smart people feel that they can’t handle a toxic person on their own, they’re not ashamed to ask for another person’s help, be that a friend, a family member, a co-worker, or their partner.

They’re aware that a person who is not emotionally invested in the situation is more able to look at and analyze it from a more objective perspective. In this way, they can provide you with the necessary knowledge and assistance you need so as to handle the toxic person swiftly and effectively.

6. They quickly neutralize negative self-talk.

If a toxic person catches you unprepared, they can easily cause you to think negatively about yourself. But smart people are aware that the way a toxic person treats them has nothing to with their personality and abilities.

They understand that negative self-talk is totally needless, unrealistic, and self-defeating, and therefore they avoid it at all costs.

7. They focus on the solution, not the problem.

Smart people are aware that the more you focus on the toxic person, the more you feel stressed out and helpless. And this, in turn, gives the other person power over you.

So, instead of wasting their time and energy on the toxic person, they focus on finding ways to handle them as quickly and effectively as they possibly can.

They either talk things out with them calmly and politely or distance themselves completely from them.

8. They forgive but they never forget.

This doesn’t mean that smart people accept or justify the crappy things someone did to them. They’re simply aware that forgiving someone is more beneficial for them than for that person.

There’s no point filling their hearts with annoyance, resentment, and anger by thinking about how they can pay them back. Because if they do that, they’ll end up transforming into a toxic person themselves.

Therefore, smart people forgive the person who betrayed their trust and did them wrong and move forward in their life. But, they never forget them as well. And this enables them to protect themselves from possible future pain and focus on building and nurturing relationships with people who have proved worthy of their trust.

8 Ways Smart People Successfully Handle Toxic People