Get a Better Handle On Life

How to Stop an Argument

Is it worth seven minutes of your time to learn how to stop an argument? Like most people, I learned the hard way how NOT to do it. But then, 25 years as a professional conflict resolver has taught me a thing or two about how to stop an argument, now I'm sharing it with you.

How to Think Like an Optimist

We hear a lot of talk about optimism and it is often promoted as a sort of cure for personal and social ills. Despite the banter between optimists and pessimists, there are compelling reasons to consider optimism as a key factor in wellbeing. These go far beyond the usual, glib ‘glass half full’ ideas or the entreaties of the positive thinking movement.
There are now thousands of studies that attest to the value of optimism at all stages of our lives. From childhood to old age an optimistic outlook confers all sorts of advantages.
Even if you are a die-hard pessimist, you can learn to use optimistic habits of thinking when things are getting you down.
This episode explains some of the benefits of thinking optimistically, and how to train yourself into the habit.
#optimism #positivepsychology #negativity #optimistic #adversity #personaldevelopment

Explaining About Me, My Podcast, and Why?

This episode introduces your author, explains what drives the podcast, and outlines some of the topics covered.
Topics in the 2020 episodes include surviving lockdown, why we need solitude, resilience, handling difficult behaviour, the benefits of knitting and other pastimes, anxiety, conflict... more to be announced soon.

Difficult People – How to Handle Difficult Behaviour part 2

Other people’s difficult behaviour can affect us in all sorts of ways. If we are fortunate, it will simply irritate us, but when it is extreme it can cause more serious problems.
This is the second and final part of the concise audio-version of my book of the same name. Using studio role-plays it shows you how to achieve more productive outcomes in a whole range of relationships. It will help you successfully settle those difficult interactions – at work or at home – that just won’t resolve themselves.
You'll also be given the opportunity to understand how to prepare yourself so that you are more effective more often in your relationships.
This episode covers:
The Complainer
The Silent Type
The Congenial
The Expert.

Difficult People – How to Handle Difficult Behaviour Part 1

We all come across them. People who either won't or can't change the ways they behave towards us. It might be outright hostility and boorishness, across the spectrum to those who appear to agree with us, only to go off and do their own thing.
Confronting them doesn't work (as if you dared), and ignoring their behaviour only serves to reinforce it. This episode will give you plenty of ideas on how to respond so that difficult behaviour no longer obstructs or troubles you. 
Using studio actors to demonstrate failed 'how-not-to' tactics followed by the successful 'how-to' scenarios, the two 30-minute episodes (part 2 next week) will empower you to take control in any situation where someone else's behaviour is getting you down. 
This episode explains how to deal with:
The Steamroller
The Guerilla
The Grouser
The Shadow.