Energy Vampires

There isn't much you can do about an overly demanding boss, or clients who move up the deadline unexpectedly. But it is possible to remove "energy vampires," people who "suck the life out of goals, dreams, and plans for success," Jon Gordon writes in MOTTO, "if we let them."

The trick is not to let them,. The easiest way to do that, of course, is simply to avoid these people in the first place.

If that is impossible, Mr. Gordon says, do not take personally their comments, like "you can't do that; you should do this instead." And understand that the problem lies with them and not with you.

"They are limited by their own vision, doubt and fears," Mr. Gordon writes. "They think that dreams were meant for others but not for people like you and me."

Paul B. Brown
What's Offline
New York Times
March 24, 2007