How to Deal with Negative Naysayers with Love & Compassion to Maintain Happiness

Do you have negative naysayers in your life — people who may be trying to discourage you from pursuing your goals and dreams?

How do you handle this type of negative criticism, so that you can maintain your happiness and positive thinking, and keep moving forward toward what it is that you would truly love?

Any time you seek to stretch beyond your comfort zone, and set a great goal for yourself or take some new kind of positive action toward a dream that you have, there will often be people in your life who are not as supportive as you would really like them to be…

And it’s usually not that they have any ill intent. In most cases, they may be seeking to discourage you because they care about you, and want to keep you safe!

Let me give you an example from my own life…

Before I began exploring personal development 40+ years ago, I still thought that life just “happened” to me.

I didn’t realize at that time that I really had the power within me, just as you do within you, to change my own experience and create things that I really wanted to have and be in my life.  

I didn’t know that I could choose happiness.

When I began studying transformational principles, and I learned that each one of us has the power to design a life we love, I was over the moon!

I felt so inspired and empowered by this revelation that I wanted to tell anyone and everyone I knew, so that they could experience this same kind of happiness, personal power and positive thinking that I was experiencing.

But not everyone was supportive of my new perspective. My parents, for example, were happy to see me so happy.

My parents said, “Whatever you’ve got, I don’t think we want it.”  

Fueled by my new found understanding of the invisible laws of success, I began to pursue some pretty outrageous goals, and my parents tried to dissuade me from this. 

I could see that they wanted to keep me safe, but I kept going, because I understood that no dream can come true unless someone first dreams it.

Over time, I realized that I didn’t need my parents to be supportive of my goals and dreams. And that I didn’t need my best friends to be supportive of them either, or anyone else, for that matter.

I had a way of setting goals that mattered to me, and I was studying material that helped me know what steps I could take to manifest them into my reality.

And also, back in the late 1960’s and early 1970’s, we didn’t have the Internet! We didn’t have a way for people to connect the way we do now, and we didn’t have teachers sending out inspirational videos like this one, to help support you and guide you toward a life you truly love living.

And so, I gained support from where I could find it — from the small community of people I was meeting who were also interested in studying the invisible side of success, and from the materials I was reading.

Today, there are many places you can go to where you can connect with like-minded people who will be cheerleaders for your success, and where you can offer your support too. My Facebook page is one of these communities!

Now, back to you and your life…

Maybe you have a dream of moving to a new place, starting your dream business, or transforming your health and well-being, for example…

And the people in your life worry about you stepping outside of your comfort zone, or becoming disappointed if things don’t work out for you. They want to try and protect you from any risks.

Also, on a subconscious level, they may be invested in you staying where you are.

If you want to uplevel your physical health, for example, and you decide that 6 days a week, you’re only going to nourish your body with healthy, nutrient-rich foods… the friend that is used to indulging in treats with you may not be totally supportive of you.

They love you just the way you are, and they don’t want you to change, because on some level, they may fear this will mean they will have to change too — and they don’t want that!

Also, there may also be some people who are genuinely negative and critical of you and your dreams, and this usually stems from their own unhappiness and lack of positive thinking about who they are… or their own insecurities about what they are or are not doing with their own lives.

So how do you deal with negative naysayers in YOUR life?

Here are 3 tips you can follow:

TIP #1: Ask for support

When dealing with someone who cares about you, but who may be discouraging you out of a well-meaning desire to keep you safe, you can simply say:

“Thank you for sharing your perspective with me. I can see that you really care about me, and you just want me to be safe and happy. But this is something I am choosing to do. You may not understand it, or agree with it, but I’m passionate about it! And I would really love your support.”

Say this, and almost every single time, someone who REALLY does love you is going to support you in your happiness, even if they don’t understand or agree.

If they still don’t want to support you, that’s their choice!

TIP #2: Be mindful of who you share your dreams with

Your dreams are precious, and just as you wouldn’t let a complete stranger off the street hold your newborn baby… you don’t want to hand your dreams to just anyone.

If you think you’re dealing with someone who just wants to be negative and critical just for the sake of it, don’t share your dreams with them! Share them with people who care.

In the future, protect your dreams and set yourself up for success by sharing your dreams with people who WILL be more supportive.

TIP #3: Seek out like-minded dream builders

Ultimately, you can never expect someone who is not living a life of their dreams to fully support you in living a life of yours, because they don’t know how to do that! If they did, they’d be living a life of their dreams!

Asking someone who is NOT pursuing their own dreams to support you in going after yours is like asking your hairdresser to fix your car engine. They can’t give you expertise that they just don’t have.

This is why having a gifted mentor, someone who has generated the types of results that you want to create, is so important… and it’s also important to surround yourself with a community of like-minded, success-minded people.

Would you like complimentary training on how to create a clear vision for a life you would truly love to live, and how to transform that vision into your reality with speed and ease? Click here for the details on my upcoming FREE Webinar!