by Melissa A.F.

Created on: March 04, 2009

If a person repeatedly disrespects you, then the word "repeatedly" suggests you have given this person more than enough chances to get their act together. It is noble to give someone a second chance to change because we are human and are prone to make mistakes, but once it becomes clear that a person is going to do nothing but take advantage of you or bring you down they do not deserve to be a part of you life. Life is too short to be wasting time on people who do not have the potential to bring anything positive to the table.

Once you recognize that there is nothing more to someone than a string of disrespectful behavior then it is your job to respect yourself and cut them loose from your life. Keeping someone like that around just sends a message that you do not value yourself enough to take action against someone who is mistreating you.

Everyone deserves love and respect from the people in their lives and if they are only going to get negative energy from someone then it is time to make a change. It is sometimes hard to make that kind of a change, especially if this person has been in your life for a long time. We tend to hang onto people for the sake of history, but there comes a time where we have to realize that to take care of ourselves we have to leave people behind.

Good people can have trouble with this because it is easy to want to be a caretaker to someone who is mistreating you. We blame their hardships for their behavior, we say to ourselves "Oh so and so can't help it, thats just the way they were taught" or "Oh he doesn't mean it, thats just the way he is"....Um, I'm sorry. They DO mean it or else they would not live a life of disrespectful behavior. At some point these type of people have to learn that their way of treating others is not acceptable and by keeping them around we are just giving them an invitation to keep acting rude.

So if it bothers you to cut off ties with someone because you are worried about hurting their feelings, remember how you felt when you were treated the wrong way by this person over and over. Then ask yourself if you want to keep this pattern up, if you think so low of yourself that you are willing to let someone else contaminate your life. You should only want people around who make you feel good and who add happiness to your life. You are worth that, you deserve that. Do not be afraid to make a change, especially if that change will benefit you. You never know, standing up for yourself may be a lesson in respect for someone who needs it.

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