Family and Friends

Deal With Your Family, Edit Your Friends

There are also outside factors that contribute to a person’s lack of self-esteem and perpetuation of bad habits. Some of them may come in different forms like unsupportive parents, unloving partner, pessimistic relatives, cynical officemates, domineering peers, and so on.

In such cases, flex your editing skills. In doing editing work, editors eliminate sentences and paragraphs that are inconsistent with the main thought. Corrections on grammar and sentence construction are made. The purpose of editing is to make the article or any written work readable, understandable, and more consistent.

Realize that editing is not limited to written works. You can also edit your list of friends. You are free to revise and correct your inventory of friends. Keep and constantly add to your list of supportive friends and edit out the unhelpful ones. You need to establish distance from these types of people.
In the case of unsupportive parents and relatives, take them as a challenge. This is not to say that you should start neglecting your parents. Just have enough belief in yourself so as to not let their derogatory remarks affect you.

Even though they may hurt you, try to emerge as a better person. They may treat you badly but they are still your parents. You just have to learn how to deal with their bad attitude in such a way that you do not end up damaging your self-esteem and self worth.

As for the other people who keep hurting you, like your so-called friends who are highly critical of everything you do and keep on encouraging you to do things you are not comfortable of doing, the solution is simple. Just ditch them.

If you know in your heart that you are a truly nice person, you will surely meet better friends. You deserve friends who will bring out the best in you. In terms of friends, think “quality over quantity.” A close friend or two, who brings out the best in you, is all that you need to go through life.
James Francis Byrnes said, “Friendship without self-interest is one of the rare and beautiful things in life.” Maintain lasting relations with friends who share your dreams and whom you can rely on critical moments. Nurture your relationship with your best friends. “Hold it with both your hands,” says a Nigerian Proverb.

Beware of “fair weather” friends who are only there when they need you. Friendship, just like with any other relationship, involves “give and take.” When you feel that you are not getting enough support from your current set of friends, try to distance yourself from them. Being the wonderful person that you are, you surely deserve somebody better.