How to Stop Being Easily Influenced: 5 Life Hacks That Will Change Your Life

Do you come under someone’s influence easily? Here are some ways to overcome being easily influenced.

It’s important to be friendly and kind to others, but there is a fine line between being friendly and being taken advantage of. It can be hard to stand up for yourself without feeling that you are being selfish or impolite.

Here are the top 5 habits to avoid if you don’t want to be easily influenced.

1. Communicate assertively.

Don’t be afraid to express your thoughts directly and clearly when you need to. Don’t try and win praise by taking a back seat; expand your horizons and improve your skills to feel more confident when communicating with people. Remember that it’s ok to say no, as long as you say it politely.

2. Stop looking for approval

When someone is always looking for our approval it can be fairly tiring. It’s difficult to achieve anything of note when you’re worried about what other people will think of you. When you feel that need to get someone else’s approval, ask yourself What do I want exactly? Your goals and desires are important and it’s totally fine if someone else disagrees.

3. Avoid being insincere

It may sound odd, but giving people compliments all the time can be a sign of low self-esteem. People can feel like you are trying to manipulate them by giving so many compliments; often it just feels a bit insincere and ungenuine. Only give compliments when you genuinely mean them, and stay true to yourself even if that means not pleasing everyone all the time.

4. Avoid being defensive

When we are defensive it is a sign of weakness; it shows we are not secure enough in ourselves to accept criticism or differences of opinions. It’s important to accept different points of view; not everyone will agree with you all of the time. It will be hard to achieve anything if you react to every obstacle as a threat. Learn to take criticism on the chin and move on.

5. Stop making excuses

No can be a sentence all on its own. You don’t need to give any excuses or reasons if you don’t want to. Instead of saying I can’t because… and coming up with some random excuse just tell the truth: I’m sorry, I’m not going to make it.