Ten Percent Happier
November 20, 2023

A Radical Strategy for Dealing With Difficult People | Father Gregory Boyle

We deal with difficult people over holiday meals, at work, and online. This guest says there is only one answer.

Father Gregory Boyle is an American Jesuit priest and the founder of Homeboy Industries in Los Angeles, the largest gang-intervention, rehabilitation, and reentry program in the world. He has received the California Peace Prize and been inducted into the California Hall of Fame. In 2014, the White House named Boyle a Champion of Change. He received the University of Notre Dame’s 2017 Laetare Medal, the oldest honor given to American Catholics. He is the author of The Whole Language, Tattoos on the Heart, and Barking to the Choir

In this episode we talk about:

  • How Homeboy Industries began 34 years ago
  • Boyle’s practices for working with stress 
  • What he means when he says you have to put death in its place
  • Motivating people through joy rather than admonition
  • How to catch ourselves when we’re about to demonize or be judgmental 
  • How to set boundaries
  • How to dole out consequences without closing the doors to anybody
  • And, Father Boyle’s expansive and inclusive notion of God

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