I know that most of my blog posts have been positive and hopefully inspiring to at least a few of you. I am often asked how I can be so positive all the time; is that really who I am behind these words?

The straight up answer is no, but I try to be. I am not positive all the time and it's been a long, hard road to get to this place of perspective that I try to live in. And I also know in the grand scheme of things, my life and the hardships I have are so very minor compared to what many other people are going through. I am inspired by those around me with challenges that I can't even imagine having to navigate.

There are a lot of things that get under my skin on a daily basis, though, and make me work really hard to maintain my positive perspective. Call them my pet peeves, I guess.

Here are just a few of them:

• People that don't use their turn signals (there's a whole post about this one!)

• People that are chronically late, with no explanation and no effort to be on time

• People who don't wave after I let them merge in front of me

• People (aka my kids) who leave dirty towels on the bathroom floor

• People who don't use clear subject lines on their emails (how am I supposed to know what to expect when I open that thing?)

• People in the service industry who give crappy customer service

• People who don't say please or thank you

• People who don't follow through on their word

• People who don't work hard yet expect things to be handed to them

• People who criticize without even trying to understand things from your perspective

I think you can see a common theme here - it's all about people, and maybe my high expectations.

Some days I worry that the majority of the people in this world completely lack common sense and courtesy for other human beings.

Even though my initial reaction to these things is to get frustrated, I also believe that people do things that annoy me without even knowing it because they are caught up in their own world and often their own struggles. Having an underlying positive perspective helps me calm down faster, not let the frustration linger, and respond in a more productive way.

I am grateful that there are so many wonderful, imperfectly amazing things in my life that counter-balance the frustrating moments and help me stay positive much of the time. But there are days when I just want to throw my hands up in the air and say "F**k this, I'm going back to bed and starting over in the morning!"

After reading this blog post, you might also have a different perspective about me. Yes, some of the things I listed above may seem very trivial to you. But part of being a human being is having your own opinions on how those around you should act and what's appropriate behavior. It's in our nature to judge and compare. What differentiates us is how we deal with our instinctual response to the things that frustrate us.

So I guess out of all of this, my advice to you is to embrace your pet peeves. Know what gets under your skin and don't be afraid to speak up for yourself and tell other people when they do things that bother you. Sometimes just bringing these things to light helps people be more self-aware and change their behavior.

There have been many times in my life where someone has told me that I do something that bothers them and I didn't even realize it. And every time they do, I am humbled and take time to reflect on what they are telling me.

I've made changes to my own behavior if I believed what people were asking for was fair and didn't compromise my beliefs and values. I like to think that I am a better person now because of it.

To quote a wise fictional character from my childhood: "Knowing is half the battle!" There is so much truth in this statement.

Knowledge of who we are and how our habits and personalities affect those around us leads to self-awareness. And we can all benefit from a little more of that.