Don’t let past wrongs keep you from enjoying your future.

Not everyone is nice. Don’t let the jerks of the world keep you from living life fully.

It would be nice if everyone was nice. If no one every bullied or put you down. If everyone helped you instead of competing with you.  That would be nice and it would make life a lot easier.

But not everyone is nice and not everyone is capable of being nice and some people will compete with you and beat you.

If you want to enjoy your life, you need to figure out how to make sure that the jerks of the world don’t prevent you from reaching your potential. You need to make sure that the wrongs that have been done to you in the past stay in the past so that they don’t affect your present or your future.

In short, coping skills for dealing with adversity are a basic life skill. We all need to learn how to cope with:

• Broken Hearts
• Death, dying and grief
• Bullying
• Not getting your way or what you want
• Jealousy
• Money management skills
• People not being responsible

and more.

We also need to learn how to not compound our problems and make things worse.  That’s a tall order. But it’s not as hard as you might think.

The reason Humanists keep trying to teach the world critical thinking is because critical thinking helps us cope with the difficulties we encounter more effectively.

All of the problems I listed above are problems. Problems that need to be solved. What’s the best way to solve a problem? By thinking about it. Sure, you can run on instinct and hope for the best, but we Humanists actually want to solve our problems. Hoping for the best isn’t enough. Not when we can take constructive action to make things better.

If you want to cope better, you need to learn how to think better about your problems. I can help with that. Check out my “Living Made Simpler” online course and my book – The Humanist Approach to Happiness.

Even Jerks Need Compassion

Into every life a jerk or two or three will fall. It is unavoidable. And let’s face it – sometimes we are the jerks. People become jerks mostly because they aren’t happy and they want everyone to know it and further, they want to make everyone else as miserable as they are. The point to remember is that jerks aren’t happy. They are miserable. That is why they are acting that way. So instead of getting upset with them, which is what they want, be compassionate with them instead. Feel sorry for them and then ignore them as best as possible. You will feel better immediately and more importantly resisting the urge to be a jerk right back means you will avoid further transmission of the jerk virus to those around you. And for that, humanity thanks you.