Many of us have realized that we must alter our lives drastically during these times of grand transformation. Self-respecting people cannot accept complacency. These times call for bravery, honesty, and transparency to transform into our highest selves. We must drop anything that no longer feels good in our souls and honor our true selves. If you genuinely respect and love yourself, you will not tolerate any of the following toxic behaviors.
9 Behaviors No Self-Respecting Person Should Ever Tolerate
Do you engage in any of these behaviors?
1. People Pleasing
You must do what makes you happy and go with your gut feeling. Forget trying to convince others; they will only try to tear you down most of the time, and give you 1,000 reasons why you shouldn’t follow your heart. You have to rise above the opinions of others, and instead do what feels right to you. Any self-respecting person values their own opinion over others.
2. A Negative View of Themselves
“Be mindful of your self-talk; it’s a conversation with the universe.” – David James Lees
If you want your reality to look more positive and vibrant, your thoughts must align with what you want your world to look like. The world will look gray and depressing if you have a negative view of yourself. However, if you have a positive relationship with yourself, you will see endless opportunities and bliss wherever you look. Self-respecting people love and nourish themselves with positive thoughts, relationships, careers, and goals.
3. Remaining Stagnant
“A comfort zone is a beautiful place, but nothing ever grows there.” – Unknown
If you look around, the world seems pretty scary, and so many people decide to remain in their safety net as long as possible to avoid anything uncomfortable. However, you can’t grow if you don’t try new things. Self-respecting people love to push the boundaries and see how much they can stretch their limits to keep evolving as a person.
4. Trying to Fit In
Again, you can’t grow and learn if you only care about following the herd. To thrive in this world, you must carve your path and learn to trust your instincts, not the tired, worn-out opinions of others. Learn to feel comfortable in your skin and trust your intuition; you will see a new world open up for you.
5. Working at A Soul-Sucking Job
Unfortunately, most people work at jobs that hate to pay the bills. However, you don’t have to become a statistic; you can leave that job that drains you and look for something else that will truly fulfill your soul. Self-respecting people dig deep to uncover what their soul wants, then follow that calling unabashedly. Of course, sometimes you have to tough it out until you find something better, but our point remains that anyone who loves and respects themselves will ultimately leave a job that doesn’t support their mental and emotional well-being.
6. Neglecting Your Health
Feeling good starts and ends with you; no one else can take charge of your health. If you don’t feel mentally, physically, or emotionally, examine your life to see where you can change.
Change doesn’t happen overnight, but it does happen gradually with actionable steps. Any self-respecting person puts their health first because they know that without this, they can’t enjoy life to the fullest and bring their best selves to the table.
7. Overly Controlling Relationships
If you have friends or a partner who tries to dictate every aspect of your life, then this should definitely signal the alarm bells in your head. You should never tolerate someone who wants to manipulate and control your relationship. According to an article on toxic relationships, “Toxic relationships can exist in any kind of relationship, and they are bad for your health..”
You deserve friendships and relationships that will enhance your well-being and challenge you to grow and learn. Simply put, if anyone in your life brings you down more than they raise you up, then you need to let them go. Self-respecting people don’t allow anyone but themselves to control their lives, period. Even experts agree–being a doormat can be harmful to a person’s mental health.
8. Being Lazy
In the age of technology, many of us have allowed our smartphones, tablets and computers to entertain us the majority of the time. We’ve lost our motivation because it seems easier to sit in front of a screen than actually go out in the real world to accomplish things. However, any self-respecting person will not allow themselves to become complacent; they continue to work hard toward their goals, and know how to use self-control and discipline to their advantage.
9. Not Choosing Happiness
Too many people settle for less than what they deserve in the world today, simply because they don’t value themselves highly enough, or they feel too comfortable in their current situation to make changes. However, any self-respecting person always chooses what makes them the happiest, regardless of what they have to do to get there. They don’t place any limits on their lives, because they know that magic indeed does exist in this world, despite what we’ve been led to believe.
If you don’t do what makes you happy, you won’t have much of a soul left at the end of your life. To rise above and set your soul on fire, you must leave behind anything that doesn’t enrich your life, and choose things that enhance it. This goes for people, jobs, relationships, where you live, diet, workout routines, and everything in between. We came here to thrive, not just survive, so remember this the next time you feel unhappy.