6. They won’t hang around negative people

This is another thing that emotionally intelligent people will never do. In most cases, complainers are bad news because they indulge in their problems and fail to focus on solutions. These people want others to join their pity party because this helps them feel better about themselves.

Those who listen to complainers feel pressured to do that because they don’t want to be seen as rude or callous. However, keep in mind that there’s a fine line between lending an empathetic ear and getting sucked into their negative emotional spiral.

Emotionally intelligent people avoid getting drawn in by setting limits and distancing themselves when necessary. Let’s put it this way: if a person were smoking, would you sit next to them all afternoon inhaling the second-hand smoke?

You would most likely distance yourself, and you should do exactly the same with complainers. A good way to set limits is to ask complainers how they plan to fix the problem they have. The complainer will then either stop talking about their issues or redirect the conversation in another direction.