The Mr. Bean Way: You Don’t Need to Be a People Pleaser
The habit of “pleasing” is a disease.
Being nice to people, being kind, being courteous- yes, it all sounds nice until it is at the cost of one’s self-respect, interests, and values. Stop being so sweet that people may chew you up. Being nice to people is good, but if you have a knack for pleasing everybody, it’s a disease or an addiction that needs to be looked into. To be frank, trying to please everyone is a recipe for stress, misery, and frustration. It is a con that you play with your own-self.
“If you try to please everyone, you will please no one. It is impossible to lead your life for others’ happiness.”
-Sudha Murty
People who try to please everybody are best explained and illustrated by the story of a man, his son, and their donkey on their way home from the market. All of them were afoot when they came across a man who taunted them of being foolish not to ride the donkey and being on foot. On hearing this, the father told the boy to get on the animal. And after they moved a little further, another man criticized the boy for being selfish for riding the animal alone while his old father was on foot. So the boy got off. And as they proceeded, a man told them…
