4. Don't over-personalize.

Often, the hardest interpersonal interactions are the ones where we take things too personally and feel wounded or insulted by another person's behavior when really it has nothing to do with us at all.

Observe your thoughts for distortions that make the situation more about you than it really is, or that needlessly catastrophize the outcome of a situation.

But when a difficult person shows consistent patterns of dysfunction across situations and with different people, there is limited control we can have over their behavior—and it only adds needless worry and heartache to blame ourselves.