Dealing with negative people can be a challenge. There are plenty of pessimistic people out there, and I’m sure that you’ve met more than a few yourself. You may be wondering how you can possibly move forward when there’s someone trying to hold you back.
Struggling to stay positive on your own? Recommended read: How To Be Happy
Whether they nag you to try and help you, or simply just to demean you – either way, it hurts, and we need to learn ways of coping with it so that we can keep growing despite them.
Here are 4 valuable strategies for dealing with negative people in your life:
1. Understanding goes a long way. Understanding why these people belittle your dreams and aspirations the way that they do can help you not only move forward, but give them grace if or when they do it again. Often, people think that they’re sparing you the pain of possible failure by telling you that you can’t do it.
Even if they don’t necessarily believe that you’ll fail, they want to protect you from the perceived pain of hard work by discouraging you from trying at all. Having this knowledge helps considerably when dealing with negative people.
2. Consider the source. Whether you’re being told negative advice by someone who has experience pursuing the same goal or not, every opinion you hear needs to be taken with a grain of salt.
If the negative input is coming from someone in your line of work or with the same dream, there is no way for you to know if they’ve really tried everything and failed. They may have been interested, but were they committed?
Let’s be honest: typically, anyone who has a goal in their mind and full dedication and commitment to accomplish it, no matter what, will accomplish it.
It may not happen for them right away. As a matter of fact, they may struggle with it and fail many times before they get to where they want.
But nobody has ever failed after truly trying everything they could have done, so there is no reason for you to compare the fire that’s inside of you to the failure you see on the outside of someone else.
3. Take a moment to appreciate what you’ve already done. It’s important to realize how far you’ve already come. Even being able to say, “I survived” is an accomplishment worth noting that nobody can take from you.
Even if you are not as far as you would like to be with your goals, you are a step ahead of the person who is still stuck in the “I can’t do it” phase that you may have found yourself in at first.
If you’re a believer in the law of attraction, the first step to manifesting what you want, regardless of what it is, is to appreciate what you have now. Sometimes, when you’re surrounded with negativity, you need to be your own best friend.
In the spirit of, “you get what you give”, it makes sense that you’d receive back more reasons to feel gratitude.
4. Show them that their criticism can’t hold you back. If you demonstrate long enough that their unkind words won’t influence you, with time, they will likely give up.
Are they showing no sign of giving up any time soon, even after seeing your progress? Again, some understanding comes in handy. They may be judging themselves for not being so bold as to chase after what they want like you are. Either way, It’s never about you!
If you continue to consistently receive negative input from this person, however, it may be time to start looking objectively at the circle of people that you’ve built. Healthy relationships are those who can accept your past, invest in your present, and support your future.
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Feel free to drop a comment or a question below, and I will be happy to respond as soon as I can!
