Coping with Difficult People Who Always Want More

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In your lifetime, you will — guaranteed — run into people that always want to have more. More of your time. More of your creativity. Just plain more. They want to take advantage of all that they can get out of you. These difficult people want more without working for it. It is frustrating, but you need to find a way to cope with these kinds of people so that you can avoid stressing out over it.

This happens a lot to writers. Many people don’t value this talent in you and want to you work for peanuts. And, you may feel the need to do it, despite what it can do to your self-esteem.

However, there are things that you can do to make this situation better and to let those people see that you are not going to accept this type of behavior. You have the right to stand up for who you are and what you want for your life.

Then there’s your family. Sometimes, if you work out of a home office, your children, spouse and even parents may think of your work as a hobby. They don’t understand why you don’t want to be interrupted. You may feel like you are being pulled in all directions. It is not always fun to feel like you have to do everything for everyone all the time. You need to put an end to it so that you are feeling better about yourself too.

Let your family know that you are doing all that you can and that they have to have some kind of responsibility as well. You should get them to realize that you are not going to always be there to take care of everything for them and that they have to do it on their own at some point in time. Make sure they understand the importance of uninterrupted time for you to work.

The same goes for clients and potential clients — although you need to couch it in other terms. You need to be firm in your self-value and not take jobs that don’t give you the ROI (return on investment) you need.

Do not be taken advantage of … no matter what. You have to stand up for yourself and let others know what your needs are. Tell them to stop wanting more and maybe you should start to ask for more out of them.

Do not worry about hurting someone’s feelings. You are entitled to let others know that you are important, that you are not going to let yourself be taken advantage of. You have a right to set boundaries with friends, family and clients.

This is going to give you more respect for yourself and give you the ambition to move on to something that you want to do. You will feel better about it when you are done and maybe the people in your life that always want more will back off and start to appreciate what you do for them.