Are You Thankful for the Difficult People in Your Life?

I'm assuming that you are most likely thankful for the friends and family in your life, but are you thankful for the difficult or challenging people in your life? Or perhaps some of your friends and family ARE the challenging people in your life (hey, it happens!). In keeping with the theme of building our "Gratitude Muscles" let's take a look at how we can be thankful for the difficult people we share the planet with.

Believe it or not, difficult people serve an important role in our lives. They challenge us to develop new people skills, deepen our character traits, become better problem-solvers, get outside of our comfort zone and think "outside the box". You know, things we wouldn't necessarily "volunteer" for, without a compelling reason.

Perhaps, you have a difficult boss, co-worker or employee that has challenged you to communicate differently in order to accomplish the goal you both are working toward.  Or maybe it's a difficult child that has made it possible for you to deepen your character trait of patience. Maybe you've had someone in your life that's so difficult that you had to increase your ability of problem-solving. I think you get the idea.

The bottom line is: the people in your life (yes, even the difficult ones) have played a part in helping to shape who you are. Let's give thanks for them (and the challenges they present), too. Without the difficult boss, learning new people skills might not be necessary. Without the difficult child, our patience would not be strengthened. Without the difficult people in our lives, personal growth might not look so appealing. But usually...without the difficult people we wouldn't be who we are today.

Who in your life, has "encouraged" your personal growth and development, by way of being difficult? What part of your growth are you thankful for? Feel free to share this post with a friend (perhaps, even a difficult one).