3. Stand up for yourself.
In her Forbes magazine article “Stand Up For Yourself: You Teach People How To Treat You,” best-selling author Margie Warrell wrote to “take a moment to consider where you sometimes stay silent rather than speaking up to make a stand for yourself. Or where you tolerate being treated in ways that leave you hurt, frustrated, resentful or undervalued. It may not seem like a big deal, but over time, we teach people how to treat us. It’s why bullies prey on those they can get away with bullying. In the end, we get what we tolerate.”
So, we’re in charge of how others treat us, yes? Ooh, you hit me real good, Warrell.
It’s the straight-up, knock-down truth: How you feel matters. What you have to say matters. Letting others treat you with a disrespect beneath you is inconceivable, Vizzini-the-Sicilian-style. So speak up. Play Sara Bareilles’s “Brave” until you feel that way and you can get those words out to defend your opinions, your standards, your impenetrable worth. And then go look at yourself in your bathroom mirror and give yourself a hearty “Boo-yah!”
