People Can't Drive You Crazy If You Don't Give Them The Keys (2012) - Plot & Excerpts
The title grabbed me; I dove in enthusiastically & then was met with statements of the obvious: other people think different than you (duh); you are responsible for your actions, others are responsible for theirs (duh again); etc. It goes on for chapters pretty much saying the same thing, never really addressing what to do with the truly crazy (who just may be dangerous). One good takeaway for me: be careful with your "inputs"--what your mind takes in & dwells on. All of us have someone in our life that makes us want to pull out our hair. They do and say things that can really drive us crazy!Sometimes we can get away from them, but many times, we can't. Especially if they're in our family.Dr. Mike Bechtle talks about this in his book, People Can't Drive You Crazy If You Don't Give Them the Keys. The interesting thing is, we have more control over our emotions within the crazy circumstances than we think!Bechtle never denies the fact that we do have crazy people in our lives! But, he begins the book with pointing out the person who might need to shift their focus from the person causing us grief to the one who can really change: ourselves! Yet, how does one go about doing that without completely changing their personality? The author points out that one of the best ways to do this is to capitalize on the positives of our personality. Then we can move forward to become an influencer of people.Although they (the crazy people) tend to make us want to change them, the best approach is to become a person who influences others. When our attitudes change about who we are in Christ, many times people around us reflect that change.However, oftentimes the crazy people in our lives don't change. What then? How do we harness our emotions so that they don't rule how we respond? The path to becoming a person whose emotions are not controlled by those around him is to slow down, focus on the truth in a situation, and act accordingly.The author divides this book into five sections that culminate all the aspects of becoming a person that is not ruled by other people's actions and attitudes:Stuck in a Crazy WorldChanging Someone ElseChanging YourselfChanging Your EnvironmentPutting It Into Practice"Mike Bechtle is the author of Confident Conversation and lives and writes among lots of crazy people in California." (back of the book)
What do You think about People Can't Drive You Crazy If You Don't Give Them The Keys (2012)?
Wasn't what I expected and not in a good or bad way... just surprising.
—mobz
Good insights. Gave me a lot to think about.
—Jessiica3
