Customer Reviews

Worst Enemy, Best Teacher : How to Survive and Thrive with Opponents, Competitors, and the People Who Drive You Crazy

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In this book you will find concrete exercises and devises that will help you figure out what is is about certain people that drives you crazy, and what that means about who you are and how you function. In going through these exercises, your whole perspective changes toward yourself and toward the difficult person in your life. You can start to see the value that conflict with a difficult person can bring. Difficult people can be wonderful mirrors into your life, exposing blind spots that you might not normally see.

My most difficult person/best teacher, is someone in my immediate family, and this book has helped me to identify why he pushes my buttons, and how I can work with that knowledge to help me stay present and really learn something from the conflict. It has been very helpful in many of my most difficult relationships.

I highly recommend this book to anyone with difficult people in their life (which I'm guessing is everyone!)

Deidre Combs keeps up in her determination to have us all learning from our enemies rather than discounting them and avoiding them. Say good-bye to being "right" and hello to the new more empowered you. You want to be like those people you admire - the ones who never seem to get upset and never get discouraged, despite serious opposition...then read this book!. It makes a powerful case with story, example, diagram, chart, illustration, quotation and science, in less than 200 pages! Your enemies are waiting to be transformed into your teachers.

Oprah Winfrey is quoted as saying: "Challenges are gifts that force us to search for a new center of gravity. Don't fight them. Just find a different way to stand." In "Worst Enemy, Best Teacher" Combs takes a similar tack, demonstrating that with proper perspective, our enemies are actually an excellent means of self discovery and improvement. With this book, Combs helps us discover and develop that perspective. The book is full of great quotes, exercises, illustrations, and resources for further learning.

Combs provides a unique view on four types of opponents that can drive us crazy. In this easy-to-read instruction manual, I was able to identify which type my son's baseball coach was (who I could have easily throttled during Little League season), and what approaches I could have used during our head-butting. With this information I could finally let the conflict go.

I loved the timeless tales that begin each chapter. With them I can weave Combs' approach in as I talk to my own kids about dealing with difficult people.

This is my favorite Christmas gift to all those people in my life complaining about their own "worst enemies."

The best book about how to resolve conflict without being a doormat. I love the Warrior concept to overcoming conflict.

So far Im on page 152 and I must say this book has brought me to higher levels of consciousness.

If readers remember one thing from this book, Deidre Combs stressed that people learn more from their enemies than their friends. In Worst Enemy, Best Teacher, Combs explains how to learn from difficult people and situations in our lives. The first part of the book is called Learning to live fully. It includes the first four chapters and includes sections on identifying the threat and meeting your inner opponents. The last chapter is entitled reap the rewards.

Section two is an everyday warrior's handbook. It explains how to become more like a warrior. Readers should think before reacting. Chapters include engage, sharpen the mind, and tune the heart. Each chapter is broken up into the four types of conflict, physical, emotional, creative, and intellectual. The last chapter is entitled learn from the people who drive you crazy followed by a conclusion.

Honestly, I was hoping to learn more from this book. However, there are many valid points brought out. I believe many people would benefit from reading Worst Enemy, Best Teacher.