3 Ways People Pleasing is Actually Making You a Jerk

Are you a people pleaser who sucks at standing up for yourself? I can definitely relate. Most of my life was spent trying to make others happy, and I was absolutely miserable. One of the delusions we fall victim to is that if we can make others happy, we’ll be happy with ourselves. While I do believe in helping others and being of service, we need to recognize when we’re going too far and it’s affecting our mental health negatively.

Along my mental health journey, I discovered something that helped me get out of the people-pleasing mindset, and it was that my people-pleasing was actually kind of making me a jerk. One of the main reasons we do things for others is to make them happy, but sometimes it backfired in my face, and I couldn’t understand why. Once I started analyzing the situation a little bit, I discovered some different ways that people-pleasing is actually making us a jerk.

People Care About You

The first important thing to recognize is that most of the people in your life that you’re bending over backwards for care about you. They want what’s best for you. They want you to be happy. So, if you’re constantly trying to make them happy, and sacrificing your own happiness, you’re actually taking away from their happiness. Make sense?