13 Things Mentally Strong People Don't Do_ Take Back Your Power, Embrace Change, Face Your Fears, and Train Your Brain for Happiness and Success ( PDFDrive )

• You avoid addressing the real problem. Giving away your power lends itself
to helplessness. Rather than focus on what you can do to improve the
situation, you’ll find an excuse to justify your problems.
• You become a victim of your circumstances. You’ll become a passenger in
your own life rather than a driver. You’ll say other people make you feel bad
or force you to behave in a manner you don’t like. You’ll blame others
instead of accepting responsibility for your choices.
• You become highly sensitive to criticism. You’ll lack the ability to evaluate
criticism. Instead, you’ll take anything anyone says to heart. You’ll give
much more power to other people’s words than those words deserve.
• You lose sight of your goals. You won’t be able to build the kind of life you
want when you allow other people to be in control of your goals. You can’t
work toward your goals successfully when you give other people the power
to get in your way and interfere with your progress.
• You ruin relationships. If you don’t speak up when people hurt your feelings
or you allow them to infringe on your life in an unwelcomed manner, you’ll
likely grow resentful toward them.
RECLAIM YOUR POWER
Without confidence in who you are, your entire self-worth may depend on how
others feel about you. What if you offend people? What if they don’t like you
anymore? If you choose to put up healthy boundaries, you may receive some
backlash. But if you have a strong enough sense of self-worth, you’ll learn that
you can tolerate the repercussions.
Lauren learned that she could be firm with her mother-in-law, while still
behaving respectfully. Although she was terrified of confrontation, Lauren and
her husband explained their concerns to Jackie together. Initially, Jackie was
offended when they told her she could not come over every night. And Jackie
tried to argue when they explained that she would not be allowed to make rude
comments about Lauren’s rules for the children. But, over time, Jackie accepted