You can find difficult people everywhere. Sometimes we work with them, sometimes we play with them, and sometimes we even live with them.

I call the difficult people in life the Bozos of life. If you let them, they can ruin your day, or worse.

There's the key phrase, if you let them.

The IEOE

There is one special type of bozo that I find particularly irritating.

The IEOE is the Instant Expert On Everything, the classic know-it-all.

On the TV show Cheers, it was Cliff the mailman. Expert on everything, complete with facts and figures that would bore you to suicide. You just know they must have spent their childhood and their adult spare time reading the encyclopedial and The Journal of Meaningless and Trivial Information.

The IEOE bozo is really irritating when they wander into your area of expertise.

ALthough they would be good to have on your team in a game of Trivial Pursuit.

What to do

There's an old saying that goes something like this:

"Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to open your mouth and remove all doubt." Might have been Mark Twain, sure sounds like him.

In other words, let the IEOE ramble on, they will eventually expose themselves for what they are.

Jeff Herring

Jeff is a marriage and family therapist, singles and relationship coach, mentor coach, speaker, syndicated relationship columnist and author.

Jeff has a full time private practice in Tallahassee in which he specializes in couples, teen and parent counseling. He also is a relationship coach specializing in working with couples and singles. Some of his professional activities include:

==> Internationally syndicated relationship columnist through Knight-Ridder/Tribune Media Services, with a weekly readership of over 10 million worldwide

==> Sought after speaker for organizations, associations, churches, and corporations

==>Twice weekly appearances on The Steve and Sara Show on Magic 107.1

==> Author of "Keep the Changes: 52 Tools for Successful Living" a collection of his best columns, as well as several e-books including "How to Create a Passionate and Loving Relationship.........Forever," "How to Beat the BOZOs: Dealing with difficult people without becoming one," and "Tame Your Teen: THE survival guide for parenting your teenager.

==> Founder and CEO of TheArticleGuy.com

==> Founder and CEO of SecretsofGreatRelationships.com

==> Founder and CEO of ParentingYourTeeanger.com

==> Founder and CEO of ToolsforSuccessfulLiving.com

==> President of BuildingYourIdealPractice.com

==> President of ConsciousDatingTallahassee.com