Do Mean People Know They Suck?

Becoming a mean and miserable person is a gradual process.

Think about it like gaining weight. No one goes to bed skinny only to wake up fat the next morning. The pounds slowly creep on over the weeks and months, until one day you look in the mirror, and realize there’s a whole lot more of you then there used to be.

That’s when you go into denial. You suck in your gut in an effort to convince yourself you aren’t as big as you think you are, and the only reason your pants don’t fit is because you’re growing. Never mind the fact that you’re 43 and your last growth spurt was a few decades ago.

The same scenario is applicable to mean people.

They unknowingly train their minds to react to everything in a negative way over a long period of time. This process is usually influenced by the company they keep, the media they consume and the environment they exist in (work, home etc). Then one day they notice the world around them has changed.

That’s when they go into denial. They tell themselves the people who used to be a positive force in their life are gone because those people are abandoners. Those people deserted them. They try to come up with any excuse to justify why they’re so miserable all the time.

What’s unfortunate is most of us can’t seem to stop ourselves from reacting to mean people. More often then not, their efforts to bring us down are successful.

You know the saying “misery loves company”?

It’s true.

Mean people only feel better about the hurt they are experiencing, when they know someone else is hurting just as bad or worse than they are. This false sense of satisfaction becomes their addiction. They begin to crave it more and more which is why they continue to hurt people.

The best way to react to a mean person is by not reacting at all.

Hurting someone who’s hurt you is pointless. Revenge may be sweet, but it’s just another false sense of satisfaction that does nothing except feed your ego.

Try empathizing with mean people. Come to the realization that they are the ones who are unhappy. The only way their actions can affect you is if you allow them to.

Choose to rise above the hurt and the hate by never allowing yourself to wallow on their level.