Toxic

9 Traits of Toxic People:

1. They talk more than they listen. They are truly narcissistic and manage to make everything about themselves.
2. They are completely unwilling to learn from their mistakes. Frankly, they’ll never accept that they’re capable of making mistakes.
3. They exaggerate everything. Drama seems to incessantly follow them around.
4. They are compulsive and often unrepentant liars.
5. They force relationships. They value relationships for the outward superficiality and not for any real connection.
6. Everything is judged by the experience they’ve had. Their experience is the only one that seems to count.
7. They have to talk you down to keep their own self-esteem up.
8. They’re very controlling and domineering people.
9. They completely lack tack and diplomacy. They don’t care if they hurt other’s feelings.

Anytime a lede includes mention of what a Zen Master is thinking, saying or suggesting, it gets my immediate attention. This sad Sunday morning, a mere eight hours after my team was shellacked by a statistically inferior one (from Boulder, CO) I would have enjoyed seeing something read: 'Zen Master instructs Husky fans on enlightened ways to deal with frustration.' Instead I got the above questionnaire on the nine most common traits of toxic people. I naturally took it as a test wanting to ensure that I am not among them, or realistically, how many of the traits that A) I use, B) apply sparingly or C) employ only in emergency situations. I tried to be as honest as possible in the spirit of self awareness and continual spiritual improvement. Please substitute the ‘they’ with ‘I’ and check your status along with me, myself and I. 

1) B

2) C

3) A- (Drama rules!)

4) B

5) C

6) B (This should be expanded upon)

7) C

8) C

9) C

There ya go. My composite score is C+, or C++ for the programmers among us. This translates into the bell curve ranking of somewhere between being an occasional dick and having periodic toxic reactions to folks in the B or above categories. Nobody likes toxicity. Don't be toxic. It's like being chained to a beached log with a rusty iron ring (or the subject of impeachment hearings.)