Most empires collapse from within. Most people’s struggles are self-inflicted. Stop reacting, who has ever lost their temper and then been glad after the fact? Anger never improves or fixes the issue at hand. Sure a basketball coach may get angry to rile up their players, but if they don’t keep their temper in check they’ll just be racking up technical fouls. Control your temper! It’s not that some people won’t feel anger, it’s there, you simply must choose to not act on it!
Focus on your actions. What do you do when someone else makes a mistake or wrongs you? It’s not up to us whether or not this happens, but what is up to us is the decision to not allow others to implicate us in their ugliness. People are often rude, arrogant and shameless but that doesn’t make it ok for you to act that way as well. Rise above, don’t stoop to their level, be the bigger person. Focus on your own actions because that is what you can control. Be strict with yourself and tolerant with others
The Buddhists emphasize the importance of letting the little annoyances of life “drift by like clouds.” You don’t have to let this bother you. We always have the option to have no opinion on something, to choose to say, “It doesn’t bother me.” You don’t have to get worked up. You don’t even have to respond. You can just let it go.
The Stoics would tell us “the best revenge is to not be like that.” When we think about it, yes, people can hurt us, however, when we really look at those people, who they are, and why they do what they do, it doesn’t actually feel like they’re getting away with anything. They’re their own worst enemy. Give up on revenge, give up on “getting even.” You’ve already won by not being like that person.
People may be obstacles, but those obstacles are how we grow. Why? Because in that obstacle there’s an opportunity to be just in the face of injustice, to be temperate in the face of intemperance that’s being rewarded, to be courageous in a sea of cowards. People are frustrating, people are an obstacle, but like all obstacles they’re also the way. People are a challenge we can rise to meet. Don’t resent people, use them to become better.