Self Improvement: The Way People Treat You

Are people born with low self esteem? Hardly and the fact of the matter is that most people who suffer from low self esteem feel this way because of things that have been done to them. If a young child is teased habitually at school or harassed at home by overbearing parents then there is little the child can do other then develop poor self esteem. Then again, even an adult can suffer from the same fate. Imagine if an adult had to suffer constant put downs from a tyrannical boss. Would the employee be able to perform at a high level? More than likely, the employee would probably never amount to much in the workforce. Again, it is next to impossible to expect any type positive self image from a person who is always being diminished. Of course, those who are doing the diminishing probably could care less about their effect on the person. As such, it is up to the person being diminished to take a stand against such negative influence.

Gene Simmons, the legendary bassist of the rock band KISS, once said that people need to establish the following rule: ???No one is allowed to treat you in a way that they have not been given permission.??? In other words, you can not allow people to walk all over you. Now, when people look at Gene Simmons they see a world famous multi-millionaire and probably figure it is easy for him to make such statements. Such people are simply not familiar with Simmons??™ background: as a child he was an immigrant who spoke broken English and had a thick accent and ???funny name??™ (his words) and, on top of all this, he was overweight. Needless to say, he didn??™t let the aggravation and the taunts get to him and he used it as a means of building his self-confidence upon as opposed to allowing it to tear him down.

? 

Ultimately, when it comes to people tearing you down you need to draw the proverbial line in the sand in regards to what you will or will not tolerate. Yes, in some instances this could lead to confrontation, but do you want to remain meek and passive and deny yourself the ability to improve your lot in life? If you want to be an achiever then it starts with letting people know they must treat you with respect.