It’s still early in the new year, and there’s still plenty of time to cut out the negativity from your life and be a better, happier person. One of the best places to start is by cutting gossip out of your life for good. Here are the reasons why if you quit cold turkey, you’re guaranteed to see a big improvement in your well-being:
- The truth is complicated. You may think you know the full story on what someone did and why they did it, but it’s more likely that you don’t. Even if you think someone’s been behaving badly, there are often mitigating circumstances. You almost never know the full story, and it’s not right to presume that you do.
- You never really know what someone else is going through in life. Just about everyone in the world is going through their own individual struggles. By gossiping, you are making life more difficult for someone who may already be going through tough times.
- Your friends will trust you more, and will let you into their hearts. When you refuse to initiate or engage in gossip, your friends will end up respecting you more for it. They won’t be afraid to open up to you and to let themselves be completely real, which will ultimately allow you to have stronger friendships. You want your friends to trust you, not worry that you’re a frenemy.
- You can’t take back words, and you might say something you’d regret. You never know who may find out about the whispers you’re spreading. You can end up doing irreversible damage not just to the reputation of the person you’re speaking about, but to your own as well.
- You want to set an example so that others don’t talk about you. People will be more reluctant to talk about you behind your back if they know that you never talk about anyone else. Insist that you don’t want to talk negatively about someone who isn’t there, and it’s more likely that they’ll show you the same courtesy.
- You’ll be more willing to let your goofy, quirky side show. Fear of others judging you makes you shrink your personality so that you won’t be labeled as weird or strange. When you know you’ve got a good group of friends who aren’t going to make fun of you or talk about you when you’re not there, you can totally let yourself go and be your true self.
- You don’t want to put mutual friends in an awkward position. If you’re gossiping to someone that’s a friend of the person you’re speaking about, you’re putting them in a really uncomfortable situation. They may listen and nod, but more likely than not it’s largely because they don’t know how to tell you that they don’t want to participate.
- It may be entertaining, but it’s just not nice. Is it really worth a couple of laughs at somebody else’s expense? In the long run, gossiping isn’t going to make you happy.
- You really don’t need any more drama. Unfortunately, it’s very likely that life is going to throw plenty of drama your way that you can’t control. So when you can control it, do your best to minimize it.
- It doesn’t actually solve any problems. If you’ve got beef with a friend, talking about her is probably going to get back to her and will only make your underlying issues worse. Instead, address her directly about any problems so that you can start working on fixing them.
- There’s are so many better things to talk about. I mean, can’t we just talk about how awesome we all are instead? Yeah, that’s what I thought.
