I Believe You Like Me Unless You Tell Me Otherwise

What if you adopted the phrase “I believe everyone likes me unless they tell me otherwise.” There will be times that you’ll take a joke or a sideways comment and turn that into a reason for someone to be against you. Fact is, they rarely are. Further, they rarely think about you at all. Give them the benefit of the doubt next time, you might be surprised to find they are better suited as a friend. #DailyMight

I’ve recently adopted the phrase “I believe everyone likes me unless they tell me otherwise” as my spirit animal. For the last 20 years I’ve crafted a nice rhythm with words of affirmation in marriage, leadership, and parenting as my love language. I’m particularly sensitive to words (there, I said it) and have always thought sticks and stones have nothing on my bones like a piercing onslaught of verbiage disguised as constructive correction. I’ve decided, people use words to hurt – but that doesn’t mean they want to hate you.

If you tell me you like me, or don’t like me — I’ll believe you. I’m gonna do my best to keep a joke a joke, and criticism an opportunity for correction or improvement. Even when we both know you’re just being mean, I’m still going to resist turning that into a reason to think someone is against me. Fact is, they rarely are.

Let me get to the point. We are all walking through our own daily challenges, and few of us give time to think about anyone else except for ourselves. Further, even mean people are rarely trying to be your enemy. They don’t have that much time to waste — and rarely think about you at all actually.

So what now? Here’s my encouragement. Next time someone is being mean, give them the benefit of the doubt that they are not out to get you. Spend some time to try and understand, practice grace, and move on. Chances are, they already have too. Unless of course, they tell you otherwise.

Give everything your everything. And then some.

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