Some sound advice about countering Trump without being drawn into his self-induced frenzy. Thank you Bryant Lane Avery.

• It’s important to recognize that Trump, like other aggressive personalities, is not issue based. He is method based. It’s a game, not a belief system. He is not solidly attached to any view, he is solidly attached to his enjoyment of his behaviors and their effect on people. It is so important that we learn to recognize that motivation system, both in our personal lives and public life. It is an essential step towards being able to effectively counter what is happening. As long as we are wrapped up in the storm, we cannot regain our grounded-ness or effectively oppose him.

• Those with intense emotion are most often not strategic. We must find our awareness of our emotion, and then learn how to channel it effectively with the values of our hearts intact and the strategy of our minds at work. We certainly don’t want to use our strategic thinking like Trump does, but it is worth learning that he is not acting on a whim or on emotion. He is acting on strategy. We should too.

• Trump is using the same tactic aggressive personalities often use in day to day life – do so much to un-ground a person that they start acting unstable – and then tell everyone they’re unstable in order to change the person’s reputation and gain control. Trump is doing the same thing. He is acting so extreme that we are all naturally upset. We are acting out of upset and now he’s attacking us for our response. We need to be the kind of people that can’t be opposed– respectful, grateful, moral, inclusive, happy, healthy, calm.

• There are many businesses with great intentions and/or a great product, but their branding and follow through isn’t solid, and so they don’t succeed. The progressives need better branding and follow through. We need a clearer, more recognizable and inclusive mission.

• Trump wants us all to be so wrapped up in his drama that we focus on his Tweets rather than our families, interests, health, etc. The goal is to work us up into a tizzy so we don’t see straight, and we forget our values and ourselves. Remembering our values and ourselves is essential to finding common ground with those who we would like to be our allies.

• Don’t get pulled into the storm of another person. Feel your emotions, know what they are, reground yourself. Know who you are talking to and act strategically based on that information.