One of the most difficult parts on the journey of personal growth is outgrowing certain negative people in your life.
This may include friends, family or people that have been in your life a long time.
Negative people are always looking to criticize and shoot down your dreams and tell you what you can’t do.
The important thing to keep in mind is that often the negativity is a just a projectionProjection is when a person denies their own unwanted traits or feelings and displaces them upon someone else. More of that persons beliefs about themselves.
And because they do not believe in themselves they also may not believe that certain things are possible for you.
Although some criticism can be helpful in growing a thicker skin or developing grit..
..too much negativity can kill your life enthusiasm.
Be your own cheerleader
You have to be extremely self-motivated to follow your dreams and have to be your own cheerleader to keep your spirits high.
It’s important that we motivate ourselves on a daily basis in order to persevere through the constant pitfallsPitfalls are unsuspected hazards or dangers. More of life and business.
The last thing we need is the negativity of others bringing us down and killing our momentum.
Et tu, Brute?
More times than not it will be people who are close to you who will cast the biggest doubts about your ability.
This is probably because they think they know who you are and what you’re capable of.
In reality, they might know a past version of you that doesn’t jive with the new improved, work-in-progress version of you.
They forget that people are multi-facetedTo be multi-faceted means to have many different parts or to be be multi-dimensional. More and have different identities in different environments.
Human beings are very complex and complicated animals.
With that said, no one can truly know everything about somebody else.
NaysayersNaysayers are pessimists or people who oppose or criticize something. More might be jealous and doubtful of your ability, motivation or maybe they simply don’t want to see you progress and leave them behind.
Be compassionate
We shouldn’t be so quick to condemn them because this is a very human feeling – not wanting to be left behind.
Many times negative people might not even be conscious of their behavior.
The best thing to do in these situations is to have an honest conversation about it if you cherish the relationship.
If the person values you, they will be supportive of you.
If they continue the negative behavior, you may have to limit your time with them or cut them off altogether.
Losing people who are close to you is always a challenging situation.
But it’s imperativeImperative means of vital importance or very important. More that we surround ourselves with those that want to grow with us and not impede our growth.
