Invariably, there will come times in your life when you find people within your inner circle of friends and family who do not have your best interests at heart. They come in all shapes and sizes, can have a variety of social disorders or none at all, but this one thing they have in common:
They Do Not Support Your Continued Growth or Success
Often times, not only are they non-supportive, contact and their continued influence may actually be detrimental to your personal growth and success. These individuals are referred to as “Toxic people.”
To say the least having a toxic relationship can prevent you from achieving your highest and best. Toxic people have a tendency to drag down your emotional state, leaving you feeling drained. Toxic people may be destructive, showering you with admiration to earn your respect and trust only to betray you or stab you in the back.
When you are on a path of personal growth or increasing your performance, it may be necessary to minimize the negative affects of nay Sayers and toxic people in your life.
How to Deal with Toxic People
In most cases, you can decrease the negative influence of toxic people by creating a buffer of space between you and the person with whom you have a toxic relationship. Most toxic people have varying degrees of toxicity and may not be so toxic as to be dangerous.
Simply backing away and being a little more “busy” to avoid spending too much time in close proximity with the toxic person may be enough to mitigate the damages of this particular toxic relationship.
This enables you to maintain a relationship with the toxic individual that is less toxic in nature. Simply by limiting your exposure, you can maintain a healthier version of a previously toxic relationship, which is the best way to approach how to deal with toxic people, especially family, friends, co-workers and/or clients who are somewhat toxic.
Dangerous Toxic Relationships
Dangerously toxic people, on the other hand, are a different breed and must be approached in a different manner.
Dangerous toxic people are destructive. They seek out ways to not only undermine your personal growth or success, but they will extend a great deal of effort to make you feel bad, put you down, impose their beliefs on you, demand your attention and resources (including emotional and financial).
Establishing firm and clear boundaries may be an effective way to deal with a toxic person. If you do this, do not renegotiate your established boundaries, because toxic people – especially dangerously toxic people – will have little regard for your setting boundaries. It is likely that they will persist in an attempt to breach your parameters at every opportunity.
If necessary, limit your exposure to the toxic people in your life to public places. This may decrease the negative affects of the toxic relationship.
In the event that these more considerable options are not effective in eliminating the social toxicity from your life, you may need to severe the toxic relationship altogether.
Stop contacting the toxic person, do not take their calls, block their number, un-friend them from social media, block them if you have to.
With enough lack of access to you, the toxic people will eventually move on to someone else.
The Most Important Thing
The most important thing, fo you, is to maintain healthy relationships and deal with people who support you and make you feel good consistently.
The better you feel, the closer you are to achieving your highest and best.
Wishing you the best and that all your relationships are with people who