Posts Tagged react

Tip: Non-Reactionary People Impress Me!

By Robert A. Rohm Ph.D.
Personality Insights, Inc.

One of the most difficult challenges each of us faces on a daily basis is learning how to not react to other people.  It starts from the very moment you wake up.  If you live in a family, it is very easy to let someone else’s morning mood wreck your day before it has even really gotten started.  Stop and think:  Which one of us has not allowed a crying baby, a barking dog, or another family member’s bad mood to immediately begin to affect our own attitude?  If we are not careful, we can easily get caught up in another person’s mood or attitude and become just like them.  We must plan in advance to not let the surrounding circumstances control us or we will surely fail in this area of life!

A few days ago I was meeting one of my daughters at Panera Bread Company for lunch.  When I pulled into the parking lot, I noticed that there was some construction going on that was making the flow of traffic a little difficult.  Since I had arrived a few minutes early, I sat in my car doing some paper work while I waited for my daughter. Read the rest of this entry »

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Tip: Responding is Better Than Reacting!

By Robert A. Rohm Ph.D.
Personality Insights, Inc.

One day recently, I was driving in Atlanta traffic when suddenly it came to a stop.  Everywhere I looked, traffic was at a stand-still.  It just so happened that I was sitting on an overpass above the interstate, so I had a birds-eye view of what was happening.  I noticed that one side of Interstate 285 was being closed down.  From where I sat, I could see that it was because of a funeral procession for a police officer.  The first part of the procession included several hundred motorcycle policemen.  They were followed by a long line of police cars.  After that were several fire trucks, ambulances and other medical vehicles.  Finally, five helicopters flew overhead.  With such a large procession, it completely shut down Interstate 285 for a long time.  It was one of the most powerful things I had ever seen!
The last time I remember actually seeing that much authority and power in one place, was several years ago when I was in traffic and the Vice President of the United States came to town.  It really was amazing to watch the respect that was shown to the fallen police officer.  He had been killed in the line of duty.  Everyone who was able to observe what was taking place was very respectful.  People stopped, got out of their cars, took off their hats, stood at attention, and paid their respects.  It was a very moving moment.

Again, because I was stopped on an overpass, I had a front-row seat to everything that was taking place around me, and I noticed that something else was happening.  From my vantage point, I noticed that there were some drivers who were full of rage and anger because someone slowed down their progress.  They were unaware of the reason for the delay, so they were angry.  Someone actually had the audacity to get their spot on a piece of the pavement right in the middle of a funeral!  I thought to myself, “If they only knew what was taking place, they would not react that way.”  Had they known that the traffic jam was because of a funeral for a fallen police office, they would have certainly changed their attitude.  And, that is when it dawned on me that they were not responding to the situation, they were reacting to it. Read the rest of this entry »

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Sometimes be Brief, Specific and to The Point – It Gets People’s Attention!

By Robert A. Rohm Ph.D.
Personality Insights, Inc.

A word of explanation is probably in order.

I (Robert A. Rohm Ph.D.) graduated from three different colleges with graduate degrees and I can honestly say that the story I am about to relate only occurred once in all of my educational experience!  However, it is the point of this Tip.

One day a student in one of my classes decided that he would challenge our professor.  Since we all know that it is acceptable to question what we are being taught, the fact that this student challenged the professor was not the issue.  It was the attitude with which he did it.  He had a sharp tone to his voice and was rude and disrespectful.  He went to great lengths to discredit the professor’s viewpoint and to explain his own.  It was clear that he wanted the professor (and the rest of the class) to know just how smart he was and that his point of view was right. Read the rest of this entry »

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