Sometimes you will lose your temper.
You’re human.
It happens.
When you lose your temper, though, you have a choice:
- Blame the other person who “made” you mad, or
- Learn a very valuable lesson.
When you lose your temper, take a moment to reflect on why you became so upset. Something about the interchange was a trigger for you.
It is very helpful to know your triggers. Once you know you triggers, you can guard against losing your temper in the future when someone else trips one of your triggers.
Here is a list of common triggers for you to reflect on:
- When someone pits staff against one another
- People touching my stuff
- Being treated as stupid
- Being treated as incompetent
- Being accused of racism / sexism / homophobia
- Having my integrity attacked
- When someone makes fun of me
- When someone disrespects me
- When someone rolls their eyes at me
- When someone laughs at me
- Having my staff members’ integrity attacked
- When someone is loud
- When someone gets in my physical space
- People who feel “entitled”
- When someone touches me
- When someone is drunk
- When someone is high
- When someone complains a lot
- When someone swears
- When adults mistreat children
- Bad parenting
- When men mistreat women
- When women mistreat men
- When someone ignores me
- When someone is overly demanding
- People who have criminal records
- People who do drugs
- When someone tells me what mood I’m in
- When someone talks over me
- Males trying to physically dominate female employees
- When people are lazy
- When someone mistreats the vulnerable
- Sexual jokes
- Racism
- Sexism
- Homophobia
- Transphobia
NOTE: I’m not saying that these things shouldn’t upset you (many should!). I’m saying that you should learn things that trigger you, cause you to lose your temper, and do things you wouldn’t normally do.
Have a great week!
Ryan
