Hey hey! So this post is about exactly what the title says – no click bait here lol.
Growing up I was always told to “be nice to people so that people will be nice to you”, which is a good thing to live by under ideal situations – but we don’t live in an ideal world. Some people can be horrible to you just because you’re nice to them; they might see you as weak and try to victimize you – what do you do when the core reason why you’re nice to people is to get it in return?
So let’s paint this case scenario further: you’ve been nothing but nice to a certain person but a disagreement occurs between the two of you and suddenly the said person begins to say all the repressed negative thoughts they had been garnering like “I hate how she feels herself” and “She thinks she’s better than everyone else” and you’re like – where is this coming from?
The natural thing to do when such people behave like this is to simply avoid them, but sometimes that just isn’t possible. They may be your colleague, class mate or even a friend of your friend – will you stop going to work or school just because of them? Heavens no!
Now let’s talk about how to deal with it:
1. Always, always, always be the bigger person. Sometimes your petty side wants to be outspoken and do things that you know are silly and unnecessary – even though you have every right to act this way and they’d most probably deserve it, you should refrain from such actions and just move past it. Just because the causative person is behaving in a particular way doesn’t mean it’s okay for you to do so to. He that answers a fool in his folly appears just like him – foolish.
2. Be civil. That the other person is being mean and stuff doesn’t mean you have to stoop to their level; this point is actually more for the other people outside the situation. Your ability to maintain civility in the face of hostility is a beautiful characteristic that many people respect, including future employers. If I know someone that “doesn’t take nonsense from anybody no matter who it is” I would be wary about recommending such a person for a job in the service industry, because I’d be worried about how they would respond to rude customers and how that would affect my relationship with the company I recommended the person to – do you get the picture? Being civil doesn’t mean pretending to like the person; it simply means you can put your differences aside in order to get things done, and being able to maintain courteous surface conversations with them if and when the need arises.
I hope you’ve been inspired to cut down on your pettiness after reading this post? Haha
Lots of love
ETP xo
