If you want less drama in your life, limit your time with people who do these 16 things

How do you feel about drama? 

I’m not talking about the film genre, I mean the lying, crying and emotional drama that often comes up in friendship, relationships, work and other areas of our lives. 

If you’ve had more than enough drama to last a lifetime and you want to decelerate, a lot of it comes down to the people you choose to spend time around. 

Here are ten types of people to avoid as much as possible if you want to reduce the drama content in your life. 

1) Angry individuals 

Anger has a lot of potential and can be channeled into productive endeavors. 

However if you are around people who are very angry a lot of the time, it will eventually transfer to your behavior and outlook. 

Try to limit the amount of time you spend around angry people. There is always something to be angry about in life but focusing on it too much can really bring you down.

2) Bossy b*tches 

Leadership and bossiness are not the same thing, not at all. 

In fact bossy people are often incompetent as well. 

They tried to exert their will over others and pushy and aggressive ways that leave you doubting your own value and feeling disrespected. You feel disrespected because you are being disrespected. 

This inevitably leads to drama and all sorts of complex situations. Avoid bossy people if you want less drama in your life.

3) Chronic complainers 

There’s plenty to complain about in life, but spending their time around people who complain a lot will also infect you with the same habit. 

It’s okay to note a problem and want to change it, but complaining for the sake of complaining feeds into a victim mindset.

Being around a victim mindset too much leads to you framing life that way and seeing reality through that lens.  

This will disempower you and lead to all sorts of drama: there’s no way to win at a losing game. 

4) Doom-scrollers 

The worst horror movie couldn’t capture that kind of current events happening in the world lately. 

Doom-scrolling by going through all the worst news is a bit of a bad habit, and spending too much time around folks who do it can lead you down a dark path. 

When you’re around people who hyperfocus on the drama and bloodshed of the news cycle, it can feed into a downward cycle where you also start to lose hope in your own life and your own goals. 

Try to limit the amount of time you spend around doom-scrollers and limit your own engagement in this activity as well. 

5) Energy vampires 

Energy vampires are not nearly as exciting or interesting as the kind of vampires from thrillers by authors like Anne Rice.

In fact energy vampires are all around you if you allow yourself to be vulnerable, and they can come in the most boring and everyday forms. 

These are people who take away your time and energy with their own concerns and drama and leave you with nothing except a depleted feeling and exhaustion. 

Energy vampires can be in your work, your personal life or even just in those who pop up during your daily interactions. Ignore them as much as possible and move on. 

6) Fake friends

There is only one thing more disappointing than having no friends, and that is having fake friends. 

Fake friends present themselves as having your back and being behind you every step of the way, but as soon as things get tough they are nowhere to be found. 

Avoid these people like the plague as soon as you spot the signs that they may not be truly loyal or truly friends.

7) Greedy grabbers

There’s nothing wrong with self-interest, but greed is another matter. 

Those who only care about getting more and more will eventually use you for their own objectives and leave you behind in their race to obtain power and material possessions. 

Trust me: 

You do not want to be the victim of greedy people (not only in a material sense but also in terms of their mindset overtaking your own humanity). 

8) Habitual haters 

People who are full of a lot of hate also have a tendency to spread these emotions and attitudes to others. 

The contagion of hate-filled opinions is very much a real thing. 

This is not only in the way that we may typically think of it (racism, sexism, and so forth) but is also ironically present in some who may consider themselves tolerant or open-minded. 

Some folks are so “tolerant” of one view (theirs) that they end up having intense hate against those they perceive as intolerant or close-minded.

9) Incompetent individuals 

Incompetence is not always somebody’s fault, but it almost always has real consequences. 

If you spend a lot of time at work, particularly, around people who do not know what they are doing and do not care to learn, this will eventually lead to blowback. It may come in the form of actual failures or in terms of lots of drama and frustration (or both).

Either way you will wish that you had been more exacting and critical from the start to avoid the kind of failures that occurred.

10) Jealous folks 

Jealousy is an emotion that is very difficult to get over for some people. I know that I have struggled with it a lot myself in various situations and contexts. 

A little bit of jealousy is not something that should be judged or used to rule someone out of your life. 

However those who are deeply jealous and just can’t get over their envy of others are a form of energy vampires and will eventually lead you in a disempowering cycle as well.

11) Knavish ne’er-do-wells

Honesty is a crucial quality in deciding who we form relationships with or not. 

From friendships to personal relationships and business ties, it is vital to form relationships with those who actually value telling the truth and who have generally good intentions. 

Nobody is perfect however some are definitely more honest than others with better standards of moral conduct. Try to associate with such people rather than those who basically have no standards.

12) Lazy folks 

Laziness breeds laziness. If you spend a lot of time around lazy people you will find that your own motivation also begins to flag. 

Laziness also leads to quite a lot of drama because the more that people make excuses for themselves and you find yourself doing the same.

The more that you let others down and, most importantly, let yourself down, the worse you will feel. 

Try to spend time around highly motivated people who want to succeed in life and make a positive contribution to the world. 

13) Mean-spirited people 

Mean-spirited people look at the world through a lens of hostility and anger. 

To the best of your ability you can try to get these people to open up and show an empathetic and compassionate side, however you cannot always fix the perspective of someone else or cause them to behave in a way you would like. 

The truth is generally this: 

It is better to work on yourself and to limit how much you try to influence or correct the behavior or mindset of other people.

14) Narcissistic manipulators 

Narcissists are frozen in an early childhood development phase where everything is about them.

They seek validation and reinforcement from everyone around them and tend to be myopic about the well-being of others and to have no real empathy. 

If you spend time around such people you will be drawn into their frame of reality which leads in a download spiral into self doubt, sadness, anger and disappointment. 

Leaving narcissists to their own game is the best course of action here.

15) Oafish bullies 

Bullying is almost always the characteristic of an insecure and weak person. 

If you’re around those who bully others even in subtle or low-key ways, you are spending time around low quality people. 

You may not have a choice and they may be family members or close work associates, but as much as it is within your power try to limit your exposure to such people and the kind of ugly drama they inevitably create.

16) Purposeless people 

Many people are looking for their purpose, and that’s great. 

However if you find that you are around a lot of people who simply do not know what they want to do with their life (and don’t care) try to limit the amount of time that you spend with them.

Instead, it’s advisable to spend time around people who are purpose-oriented and know what they want from life (or at least are trying their best to find out).