We all have buttons - pet peeve, triggers, whatever you want to call them - that, when pushed, just irritate and irk us until we want to scream. Perhaps you have a co-worker who lives her life as if she were constantly on stage. Her entrance into meetings is dramatic and flaring, and she feeds off the energy from everyone's attention and uses that energy to take control of the room. Her voice is louder than most, And her contributions to the meetings are always long winded novels, as if she just loves to hear herself talk.
If your modus operandi is more subtle ( Or you really would like part of that stage yourself), A person like that may really eat at you. When you go into a meeting with great ideas and a readiness to just sit down and get straight to the point, a drama queen who is creating a stage in the board room is bound to flip your switches for frustration and rage. Even if you are not the type to blurt out impulsive comments or otherwise go on the attack, your body language may give you away, or you may find yourself on the drive home obsessing over your lingering frustration.
Knowing who pushes your buttons and how they do it is critical to developing the ability to take control of these situations, maintain your poise and calm yourself down. To use this strategy, you cannot think about things generally. you need to pin point the specific people and situations that trigger your emotions. Your buttons are bound to get pushed by a vide range of people and things. It could be certain people ( Like Drama Queens, particular situations like feeling scared or caught off guard). Or conditions in the environment (Likely noisy offices). Having a clear understanding of who and what pushes your buttons makes these people and situations a bit less difficult because they come as less of a surprise.
You can take your self awareness a big step further by discovering the source of your buttons. That is why do these people and situations irk you so much when other, equally annoying people and situation don't bother you at all ? Perhaps the stage hog reminds you of your sister who got all the attention when you were younger. You lived many years in her shadow, vowing to never let it happen again. Now you sit beside her clone in every meeting. No wonder she is a trigger for your emotions.
Knowing why your buttons are what they are opens doors to managing your reactions to your triggers. For now, your tasks are simple - find the sources of your buttons and jot down a list. Your buttons is essential to using for the self and relationship management.
