naysayers | David M Masters

The Haters Are Waiting for You to Pursue Your Life’s Purpose

Let’s not sugarcoat it: if you decide to pursue your life’s true purpose, especially if it’s unconventional or countercultural, you are stepping into a battlefield. The world we live in isn’t exactly designed to cheer on the dreamers, the misfits, or those who dare to step outside the societal script. If you announce you’re becoming a doctor, lawyer, or firefighter, you’ll likely receive applause and pats on the back. But if you say your purpose involves writing poetry that inspires social change, creating eco-friendly art installations, or teaching others how to heal through sound vibrations, brace yourself. The haters are coming.

Why the Haters Show Up

The system we live in is designed for conformity. It’s built to produce predictable results that keep society running smoothly, or so it seems. When you step out of line, you’re not just challenging the status quo; you’re threatening the comfort zones of everyone still plugged into the matrix. Your courage to pursue something greater is a mirror that reflects their own fears and insecurities.

And that’s where the hate comes in. Haters don’t hate you. They hate what you represent: the possibility of a life lived boldly, authentically, and on purpose.

Examples of Purposeful Paths That Invite Pushback

1. Revolutionary Educators: People who teach alternative learning methods, like unschooling or radical critical thinking, often face criticism for “not preparing kids for the real world.”
2. Holistic Healers: Practitioners of Reiki, energy work, or herbal medicine are frequently dismissed as “quacks” by skeptics entrenched in the pharmaceutical model.
3. Visionary Artists: Those who create art that challenges societal norms, be it through provocative installations, music, or performances, are often labeled as eccentric or even dangerous.
4. Environmental Pioneers: Entrepreneurs advocating for zero-waste living or free energy solutions often encounter resistance from industries and individuals tied to traditional systems.
5. Spiritual Trailblazers: People who blend metaphysics and religion to create new paths of enlightenment may find themselves alienated by both religious traditionalists and secular skeptics.

What these paths have in common is that they’re not just jobs or careers. They are callings, higher purposes designed for specific individuals who are equipped to bring them to life. If you feel drawn to one of these or a similarly unconventional purpose, congratulations: you’ve been chosen.

What to Expect from the Haters

The haters won’t come in one form. They’ll show up in all shapes and sizes, from subtle discouragement to outright hostility. Here are a few examples:

1. The Concern Troll
  - What they say: “I’m just worried about you. How are you going to make money doing that?”
  - How to handle them: Thank them for their concern and assure them you’ve thought this through. Then pivot the conversation to something positive.
2. The Cynic
  - What they say: “That’s not realistic. Be practical.”
  - How to handle them: Share a success story, yours or someone else’s, to illustrate that what seems unrealistic is actually possible.
3. The Naysayer
  - What they say: “That will never work. People like you don’t make it.”
  - How to handle them: Smile and say, “Watch me.” Then let your results speak for themselves.
4. The Envious Peer
  - What they say: “Must be nice to chase your dreams. Some of us have real responsibilities.”
  - How to handle them: Remind yourself that their envy is their problem, not yours. Respond with kindness but don’t let their bitterness distract you.
5. The Keyboard Warrior
  - What they say: Anonymous internet comments like, “This is stupid,” or “What a scam.”
  - How to handle them: Never feed the trolls. Block, delete, or simply move on.

Why the Haters Are a Good Sign

Here’s the paradox: the presence of haters means you’re on the right track. If no one’s challenging you, you’re not shaking things up enough to make an impact. Pushback is proof that you’re doing something significant, something that matters.

The key is not to internalize the hate. Remember, it’s not about you. It’s about them and their fears. Use their criticism as fuel for your fire.

A Plan for Dealing with the Haters

1. Build Your Support Network: Surround yourself with people who believe in you and your purpose. These are your allies, your cheerleaders, and your safe harbor.
2. Stay Grounded in Your Purpose: Write down why you’re doing what you’re doing. Revisit this often, especially on tough days.
3. Develop a Thick Skin: Not every opinion matters. Learn to discern constructive feedback from destructive criticism.
4. Celebrate Small Wins: Every step forward is a victory. Celebrate them, no matter how small, and let these milestones remind you of your progress.
5. Practice Compassion: Understand that haters are often acting out of fear, insecurity, or ignorance. You don’t have to agree with them, but you can choose not to hate them back.

If you’ve been called to pursue a purpose that challenges the norm, you are one of the chosen few. You’re here to make the world a better place, to light the way for others, and to do what only you can do. But be ready. The haters will come.

When they do, remember this: they are proof that you’re shaking up the status quo. Keep going. The world needs you now more than ever.

And when in doubt, just smile and say, “Watch me.”

Thought Police Custodial Interference in Your Divine Purpose

The Thought Police are watching. They monitor your every word, observe your every action, and are more embedded in your life than you might think. Who are they? They are your family, friends, coworkers, teachers, supervisors, and even those you most admire and respect. If you doubt their influence, try sharing a truly independent thought that breaks from conventional wisdom, and observe the reactions around you.

You might be called to rise and fulfill a unique purpose—an inner drive to contribute to the world in a way only you can. This calling is the spark of your divine purpose, the gift you are meant to share with the world. You take the bold step to follow this calling, but the Thought Police are never far behind.

The Subtle Voices of Doubt

Once you step out in faith and start to pursue your divine mission, the Thought Police appear, often through the very people closest to you. The person you trusted, someone who has always supported you, suddenly whispers, “This isn’t for you.”

This subtle remark activates a series of dormant voices in your mind, placed there long ago by societal conditioning. You hear an internal chorus of doubt, voices whispering:

You’re not good enough.
You don’t have the right education.
You lack the proper connections.
You aren’t attractive or charismatic enough.
You don’t have the experience or skills.
Who are you to think you can do this?

The Thought Police have planted these voices to keep you in line, to prevent you from stepping out of the safety of the status quo. They are the psychological barriers that keep you from realizing your full potential, ensuring you never break free from the life they’ve designed for you.

When Loved Ones Become the Thought Police

Even if you quiet those inner voices, external forces will step in. People you admire or respect may unintentionally (or sometimes intentionally) become agents of the Thought Police. They may say things like:

Are you sure you want to do this?
That sounds risky. What if it doesn’t work out?
Maybe you should take the safer path.
What will people think of you?

These questions often come from a place of concern or fear, but they can serve as roadblocks on your journey. When others see you challenging societal norms or risking failure, they may project their own fears and insecurities onto you. The result? More pressure to conform.

Thought Police Tactics & Mental Restraints

The Thought Police use a variety of tactics to undermine your efforts:

- Guilt Trips: “How can you abandon what you have now for something so uncertain?”
- Ridicule: “That’s a foolish idea—people will laugh at you.”
- Isolation: “You’re going to be left behind, alienated from your friends, family, and social circles.”
- Fearmongering: “What if you fail? You’ll lose everything—your career, your reputation, even your life.”
- Comparison: “Look at so-and-so—they tried something similar and failed. Why do you think you’ll be different?”

These methods aim to make you second-guess your decision to pursue your divine calling. The goal of the Thought Police is to make you abandon your path and return to the safety of the predictable and known.

Don’t Let Them Get to You

The Thought Police may be powerful, but they are not invincible. Recognize and overcome their influence as you move forward on your path.

The most effective way to combat the Thought Police is fortifying your sense of self and purpose. When you have unwavering faith in your divine mission, external forces will have less sway over you. Cultivate an unshakeable belief in the importance of your calling. This requires continual self-reflection and aligning your actions with your inner values. Meditate on your purpose, visualize your success, and affirm your worth.

Understand that many of the doubts you feel are not your own. Others have placed them in your mind—family, society, or cultural conditioning. You can separate these voices from your authentic self by recognizing them for what they are. Practice mindfulness to recognize when these intrusive thoughts arise and actively challenge them.

Not everyone in your life will act as the Thought Police. Some will genuinely encourage and support your growth. Seek out these individuals—mentors, like-minded friends, or communities that align with your vision. Their encouragement will serve as a counterbalance to the negativity from others.

Sometimes, those closest to us unknowingly become the most significant obstacles. In these situations, it’s important to set healthy boundaries. This might mean limiting how much you share about your journey or distancing yourself from people who continuously project doubt onto you. Remember, your path is sacred, and not everyone is meant to understand it.

The Thought Police often use the fear of failure to keep you from taking risks. But failure is not the enemy—stagnation is. Each setback offers a lesson that brings you closer to your ultimate success. Reframe failure as part of your growth process and push forward with resilience. The more you face and overcome adversity, the weaker the Thought Police become.

One of the most potent antidotes to the Thought Police’s negative conditioning is self-compassion. Treat yourself with kindness when you face setbacks or doubt. Instead of letting the voices of the Thought Police erode your confidence, actively remind yourself of your achievements, strengths, and progress. Embracing self-love and forgiveness fortifies you against their manipulation.

Instead of focusing on the overwhelming enormity of your divine mission, break it down into manageable baby steps. Each small action you take toward your goal weakens the hold of the Thought Police. The action builds momentum, and as you see progress, your confidence will grow, making it harder for doubt and external forces to sway you.

Pursuing your calling is an act of defiance against the Thought Police. It is a rejection of the conventional path and an embrace of the extraordinary. The journey won’t be easy, and the Thought Police will be relentless in their efforts to steer you back toward conformity. But by strengthening your internal resolve, surrounding yourself with positive influences, and taking persistent action, you can outmaneuver them.

You are here for a reason. Your contribution to the world is unique, and only by following your divine purpose will you fulfill your highest potential. The Thought Police may whisper, threaten, and cajole, but they cannot stop you if your resolve is more potent than their influence.

Remember, the Thought Police are loudest when you’re on the cusp of greatness. Silence them by walking your path with courage, determination, and unwavering faith in your purpose.

How Dare You Disrespect Me

You know what I’m talking about. It happens every day in the lunchroom, on the court, in the office, in person, on the phone, or on social media, like Facebook, someone says, texts, or posts something that instantly takes you to fight-or-flight. Hurt or anger wells up inside you and you either say or shout,

“How dare you disrespect me!”

Your ego is riled up and in full force, posting up ready to fight, defending your honor over words that someone has uttered or typed which have offended you and possibly cut you so deep that you are crippled by the assault.

Whatever the reason, someone had the unmitigated gall to bully you, spewing at you their hurtful words. When words hurt you, the effects can be very real, as if you’ve been punched in the gut, hit it the face with a board, instantly suffered a knife wound from being stabbed in the back, or shot through the heart.

While people might accidentally step on a nerve or unintentionally say something that might offend you, believe it or not, there are actually people who might try to hurt you on purpose. This leaves you wanting to confront them and say, “You hurt me.”

They might suffer from deep, dark inner wounds, far hidden from visible or conscious view. This causes them to unconsciously project their fears onto people around them.

There is also a more conscious version of projection which projects their conscious inadequacies, things they know are problems in their own lives, but rather than deal with the issues themselves, they project them onto the people around them. This act offers them relief from feeling inadequate if they can convince themselves that someone (or everyone) else is worse than they are.

Then there are those who have to maintain a sense of superiority over others to make themselves feel better about themselves. If they do have a superiority complex, there’s a good chance they’re a little more adept at putting other people down and hurting their feelings than other individuals.

The stealthier verbal attackers are the ones who are passive-aggressive. They have the ability to disrespect or insult most anyone, without actually using specific words that can be addressed as being abusive, assaultive, or rude.

In these cases, the passive-aggressive might say something in a way that hurts your feelings, and when you respond negatively they reply with, “What?” Insisting they did not say anything (specific words that by themselves would not be assaultive) to hurt your feelings.

Someone with low self-esteem might be jealous of you and what you have. Someone who is jealous of you, your skills, talents, special abilities, station in life, or happiness, might like to strike out at you to hurt your feelings or even falsely accuse you of something to bring you down a peg or two. This offers him or her a bit of relief regarding their own life circumstances.

Everyone is just doing the best they can just to get through another day. There is so much struggle to have a good feeling about one’s self, that some of us (if not most of us) might get some sense of satisfaction by putting someone else down.

For some reason, our psyches are just set up that way. Either directly or indirectly disrespecting someone else for anything that would otherwise make us feel bad seems to be effective when we are very young and left unchecked it carries over into adulthood.

Then, of course, there is the psychopath who seeks to wreak havoc and leave a wake of emotional destruction wherever they go, but that’s a horse of a different color. In this case, see: How to Deal with a Psychopath.

Don’t Let Them Get to You

Ever have someone slow your roll by interrupting your positive vibrational momentum and breaking your stride by bringing you down? The power that others wield in your circle of influence may be stronger than you think. Don’t let them get to you.

Because your parents and others supported the idea that you would grow into a confident competent adult, the day came when you adopted the persona of the grownup. You actually became the embodiment of what those around you expected you to become. They believed in you, you believed in their expectations, and you grew into your adulthood.

You are able to face all life’s challenges because you believe in your ability to do so. Often your belief in yourself was influenced by those you who surround and support you.

For those who were not fortunate enough to have a powerful support system, they have a tougher time of it and will face challenges with a feeling of unconfident and incapable of staring obstacles down with the ability to draw from a history of inner strength. These people have the most difficult go of it.

Those within our circle of influence have an incredible effect on who we are and whom we become.

When you’re in the presence of another person, your attitude and potential for successfully navigating any communication is greatly influenced by the other person. Whether it be your friend, someone who has power over you, a parent, teacher, law enforcement, a judge, the government, or your spouse.

Likewise, anyone you have influence over like you friends, workers, if you’re a manager, people you are teaching, younger siblings, or children you might be raising or babysitting, are influenced by the words you use as well as the respect and support you give them when they are in your presence.

For those who are living their highest and best life, they believe in their capacity for goodness, greatness, and unconditional love, and so it is. They are stepping into their purpose, message, passion and mission. These are the people who are not unlike you. You, too, can live a better life, your best life, and make the world a better place.

I guess that’s why it’s referred to your circle of influence. These people don’t just represent the people you have influence over, but it also represents the people who have the ability to have influence over you.

Left unchecked, you could be allowing people to populate your circle of influence who could be dragging you down, they could even be influencing who you are, or who you will become.

If you have allowed people to influence you negatively, now is the time to turn the tables on them and show them what you are made of, and all the possibilities which are awaiting your loving embrace. The time has come for you to grow and expand beyond any limitations of anyone else.

The naysayers are wrong. Anyone who ever amounted to anything faced those who didn’t believe in them, and the most successful people persisted to continue to strive above and beyond any of the expectations of the naysayers.

The most successful people proved them wrong in spite of the beliefs of the doubters.

Don’t let them get to you

You have the power over who you become, and it’s up to you to protect yourself from those who could stand between you and your embracing you and all of your potentialities, all your gifts and talents, all your love and strength of honor.

You are worthy. You have been endowed with everything you could possibly need to get from where you are to where you want to be, and no one has the right to question your divine endowment.

You Can’t Do That

Whether it is that frightened little voice inside, your best friend, a family member or your neighbor, what do you feel like when someone (including your inner critic) says, “You can’t do that,” or similarly tries to dissuade you by initiating a “reality check,” listing all the reasons why you shouldn’t attempt to do something.

You rationalize that your inner critic, friends and family are only looking out for your best interests and even they say they are only trying to protect you from the embarrassment of failure. They insist they don’t want to see you get hurt, depressed, or lose anything and that it is only of the upmost concern for your wellbeing that they try to help you see the light and encourage you not to pursue your idea.

Because there is a measure of unworthiness, a sense of not being good enough, that resides within you, you thank your friend for saving you from a potential catastrophe.

Though they may be representing themselves as caring so much about you that they feel the compulsion to help you not pursue a ridiculous dream or engage in an activity that could cause you suffering.

The truth is, the people who are closest to you are selfish and don’t want to see you try something and succeed, because if you pursue a dream or follow a calling and succeed, what does that mean for them? They will no longer be able to justify their “safe” lives of mediocrity any longer, and to feel as though there is a greater purpose in life waiting for them outside their comfort zone is just too frightening to consider.

If you want to live a better life, possibly your best life and make the world a better place, then don’t let these naysayers drag you down or keep you from pursuing your dreams.

You need to assess your support system and determine who has your back and who does not. Most people want to see you live an acceptable lifestyle similar to theirs, but you may have friends who will support you in whatever pursuits you might engage in. Keep these people (hopefully you can find at least one) nearby and consider mustering up the courage to

Go For It

Without people, like you, going for it, regardless of what other people say, we would not have light bulbs, long distance watercraft, airplanes or space travel. Almost every major breakthrough in science, technology, business, or lifestyle was preceded by opposition and name-calling, so you’re in good company.

If you choose to do so, you can put yourself behind the wheel and become the captain of your own ship by not listening to others who might try to keep you from achieving your highest and best.

“But what if I fail?”

If you were to ask any innovator throughout history, they would tell you that there was no such thing as failure as most major breakthroughs are based on the information gained from failures. Very few individuals hit a home run with their first swing of the bat. Finding your passion and taking action to work toward having an impact on your life, the lives of others and possibly the world at large will take the willingness to step into the unknown in faith.

If you are met with a challenge, obstacle, interference – or if you fail – persevere, push through and become the hero of your own story.

You Can Do It

When you embrace your passion and deliberately blaze your own trail regardless of anything that may stand in your way (even yourself), the impossible, making your wildest dreams come true, becomes possible.

You got this, you can do it.