Why get upset with others or react to their every action? Does it actually help you? In most cases, probably not. Do you get angry, irritated, or frustrated with people or about situations over which you have no control? If you can stop your irritation and replace it with calm, then no matter how frustrating, silly, or upsetting people are, you can keep your cool. If you don't get irritated by people at work, you will be happier and less stressed no matter what your working environment. Keeping your levels of irritation, frustration, and anger to a healthy, low level is a display of a great emotional self-management. If you are always firing up and getting agitated, frustrated, or exasperated, you are burning yourself out. Those emotions add stress to your body, and stress causes inflammation in the body, which in turn can lead to disease. Yes, feeding yourself a frequent and regular dose of anger, irritation, and frustration is a health hazard. So, let's learn how to keep cool with irritating people:

• Be realistic: Getting annoyed does not stop the other's behaviours. Do they change their behaviors to make you happy? Are you expecting people to follow your rules and be perfect? People don't change their behaviors to please you. Understand that everyone is different, accept it and move on with your life. But you have the power to change from being annoyed to a more pleasant mood. Do something that makes you laugh--a funny song, a joke, and so on.
• Enquiry: Ask yourself if your getting annoyed by someone else's behavior helps you in any way? If getting annoyed by people only makes things worse for you, why get irritated? Annoying people is not worth it. Use your power to change how you feel. Focus on something else. Use a deep breathing technique. One of my tricks to deal with annoying people is play in my head the Muppet Show music. Maybe it works with you. Give it a try.
• Predict and have fun: Can you predict what people will do and don't do that will frustrate you? If so, you could have fun with this so that your irritation lessens. For instance, a client I worked with used to get irritated by what she called stupid questions. When I asked her if she knew in advance what stupid questions she would be asked, she said, "Yes, I hear the same ones every day." Why get irritated when you know in advance what will happen? Most annoyed people are often predictable. Enjoy your predictions and laugh about them. Applying emotional intelligence with annoying people can be fun.
• Change your reaction: A different response can diminish the escalating cycle of irritation. If you have always responded in the same way, and the problem continues, then change the way you respond. You have the power to change the way you react to others. You don't have the power to change the others. Do you realize that others can see you as the annoying one if you always react in some way to some trigger?
• Talk to people in advance: Don't just fester and complain inside your head. For example, simply saying something along the lines of, "Hi John, I noticed that in the last couple of meetings when I am presenting my projects to the Board you always interrupt me. Can we work out a strategy to overcome this as I sometimes miss what you say and think you miss what I say? What do you think?" Voice your concerns with consideration and kindness. But be careful to not patronize, be sarcastic or mean, and avoid implying that the other person is stupid. Managing your emotions and keeping your cool can involve many different strategies.