What Do You Do When You Don’t Get No Respect?

They had some things in common, like their job and movies, but for most everything else they were opposites. Along with being very opinionated, his lunch buddy also had a strong, negative streak.

Although he got under his skin, my client felt obliged to eat with his co-worker a few times a week because of shared projects. Plus, he didn’t want to eat alone.

The tipping point, however, was the guy’s bad habit. When with a group of people, he would diss my client in a joking way.

This time he’d had enough. Later, he went to his colleague’s cubicle and politely yet clearly expressed that he didn’t like when he did that.

Results? His co-worker hasn’t been around for lunch. For the longest time, what to do about this situation was a quandary. When he stood up for himself, the issue went away.

Freedom.

Eventually, what’s no longer in alignment changes in one way or another.

While you may want to hold onto the status quo and are willing to tolerate that which is intolerable, life won’t let you stay that way for long. Things will change.

Although it can seem easier to complain silently or to others, to justify your reasons for what’s not working, or to act like a car with a dead battery, the strategy of avoidance ultimately gets you nowhere.

Another client experienced disrespect from family members. Her antidote was different.

Instead of being frustrated while resisting and railing against them, she opted to find peace within and to stop trying to control the uncontrollable.

Results? Because she changed her energy from anger to peace, others began to respond to her differently. One person even apologized for his former, rude behavior.

If you put up with things because you feel you must, the world has a way of making you evolve. Life’s personal growth program includes natural disasters, illnesses, accidents, divorce, getting fired, losses, caretaking, and even children.

You can choose to no longer put up with stuff. This means adopting a new perspective or doing something to change before change finds you.

Both clients took action, and neither was better than the other – one was outer, to say something; one was inner, to be at peace.

“Claim Your Energy,” a segment from my program Resolved for Results, begins with this:

People and activities influence your energy to go up or down. It’s imperative to be vigilant about how you spend your time and with whom as well as what you allow into your heart, thoughts, and environment.

Why? Because people, beliefs, and activities that suck your life force are energy vampires.

TIP: When you remove what brings you down (or never let it enter in the first place), you raise your energy. In turn, life treats you better because you treat yourself better.