Finding the right people and protecting yourself from the wrong people, Part 3

“…we often mistake love for fireworks – for drama and dysfunction. But real love is very quiet, very still. It’s boring, if seen from the perspective of high drama. Love is deep and calm – and constant.”
― Alex Michaelides, The Silent Patient

Oh is this next principle is important!

But before we jump in, let’s get caught up.  If you remember, we’re trying to develop a template for finding the right people to make a part of our inner circle while at the same time identifying the people that we need to stay away from.

Of course, the reason this matters is that the people we associate with will determine our level of success in life.  Therefore, wisdom is required in developing our inner circle of friends and associates. 

So let’s review:

Skill #1 in our template is: Listen to people.  Do this long enough and they will tell you plainly whether or not you should hang around with them.

Skill #2: Watch them.  They may fake it for a while, but eventually, no matter what they say, people will show you by their actions whether or not you should include or exclude them from your inner circle.

But now the principle #3…better buckle up!

Principle #3: Monitor the drama level around a person.

Proverbs 6:14 describes them as “continually sowing discord.”

You know the term – “Drama Queen” (or King) – I call them Drama Junkies, they’re addicted to drama. 

For the Drama Junkie, there’s always some controversy, some causes, or conflict going on around them.  They can’t help themselves. But you can, don’t get sucked into their Drama Vortex – it is not worth it!    

The truth is Drama Junkie are hooked on drama.  If things are going well they get nervous.  “Normal” for them means loud, intense, emotional, and controversial; if these are not present they will see to it that soon they are. 

They are usually well-intentioned and sincere, but Drama Junkies are dangerous.  If not today, soon there will always be collateral damage and you don’t need to be a part of that.  Best to stay away from them.

The ONE THING for today: Creating drama is for movies and Broadway plays, not real life.  There will be enough drama without having someone always dropping a drama bomb into your life.  Best to keep Drama Junkies at a distance, and even then, you’d better be ready to duck when they walk into the room.   

Photo by Vlah Dumitru on Unsplash