Keeping People From Taking Advantage of You
Most people like to do things for other people when they can but some people tend to over do it on the niceness and end up getting taken advantage of. It usually starts out by doing something small for a friend or family member in need and then offering to do something a little bit bigger and more significant the next time and it can easily escalate from there. The person may not even be trying to take advantage of you but it is easy to accept help when it is offered and many people have trouble saying no in such a situation. This means that it may have to be up to you to keep yourself from being taken advantage of. This is not always easy if you are the type of person who does not like to see others unhappy or the type of person that feels like they should take it upon themselves to solve people’s problems. The fact is, people will always run into situations so you are not and should not always be there to help them out of those situations. After all you have your own situations and issues to deal with and if you are to busy helping everybody else you will have little time left to help yourself and your own family. There are a few key ways that you can keep people from taking advantage of you.
First in foremost in keeping people from taking advantage of you is learning how to say no. Just because you say no to something does not mean that you being unreasonable, you have the right to say no to anyone any time you want. This does not mean that you always have to say no but you should pick and choose wisely the favors that you do for others. It is not that difficult to just tell somebody that you can’t do something unless you yourself make it difficult. If you are worried about upsetting the person then just remember that they will eventually, probably very quickly, get over whatever it is.
Second and also important is not always offering to do things for people, especially when you know that you do not have the time or patience to do it. Some times many of us get caught up in the though of making someone else feel good and helping others but we do not realize that it often comes at the price of sacrificing something that we had to do or could have done with our time. In the end we feel the pressure to complete our own tasks but we also have taken on the pressure of completing someone else’s as well. Only offer to do what you can realistically do and you will have a lot less stress and be taken advantage of much less as well.
Getting taken advantage of is easy to do and can bring more unwelcomed stress than we often bargain for. Make a commitment to yourself not to take on to much and you will be all the happier for it.
Cathy Lopez is a well-known business writer who has been active in the business community for more than thirty years. She is currently exploring Cleaning Out Your Closets and Earning Money . See more details about Soccer Mom.