While most people want to achieve happiness and when they do so, they want to share it with others, there are those who deny that it even exists. Their pessimistic attitudes can negatively affect you unless you’re armed with the right response.
Happiness is something we all, (okay, almost all) want to achieve and what makes us feel complete. I say “almost” because some don’t see happiness this way. They’re the jealous. The selfish. The lonely. The people who enjoy judging others and have a negative view of life. The people who believe the world owes them something or who are unhappy themselves – you get the picture.
They will deny that happiness exists and try to make you believe the same. And whether you’ll let their negative attitude affect your peace of mind and ruin your day depends on the way you respond to them when you encounter them.
So, make sure you never let this happen by using one or more of the following 6 comebacks:
1.“ Trashing other people’s happiness doesn’t make you look better and more important than them.”
This is probably the best way you can respond to an envious person. The moment someone starts rolling their eyes or trying to change the subject when you talk about your achievements, you can take this as a sure sign they envy you. They can’t stand the idea that you’ve achieved the things you wanted and accomplished your goals. So, they’ll try to ruin your happiness by changing the topic of discussion or emphasizing your flaws, insecurities, and mistakes.
They think that this will make them appear smarter and more capable than you, but, in fact, it makes them look desperate.
2. “Happiness is a meaningful goal.”
To different people, happiness has different meanings. To some, it means having a well – paid job, earning a lot of money, and living a luxurious life. To others, it’s being a healthy, loving, and generous person.
The skeptics define happiness in the first way and they absolutely find no meaning in it. If you define happiness the other way, then you certainly derive great meaning and know what happiness really is about.
3. “Yeah, life can be quite hard and many people feel doomed.”
Unfortunately, today, many people feel lonely and depressed due to their unhealthy lifestyle. They perceive the world from a negative point of view. And some of these people tend to project their problems and dissatisfaction with life onto others. Instead of thinking their life is difficult, they think everyone’s life is hard and we’re all doomed.
Yeah, we’re all aware that many people are going through a tough time, but this doesn’t mean that another person’s hardship should become our own. Using this response brings benefit to both sides. It makes the other person feel relieved because they’ll know their pain is acknowledged and it helps you untangle from their hardship.
4. “Patience, patience, and only patience.”
This is the perfect comeback for dealing with a person who’s trying to dissuade you from pursuing your goals. We all know, including the pessimistic ones, that happiness is not permanently feeling good about yourself or just laughing every single day, but requires making a sacrifice, accepting failure, hard work, and sometimes even discomfort and sadness.
Yet, this doesn’t prevent the “critic” to repeatedly tell you that you should stop chasing your goals and dreams because fulfilling them is impossible.
5. “Contentment isn’t happiness.”
You can’t feel genuine happiness unless you’re able to content yourself within the present moment. Since if you can’t, then you’re not genuinely happy, you’re just content with your life.
Someone who is happy is always willing to try hard to overcome their problems and fix things, be that in their relationships or at work. They’re persistent in pursuing their goals and ready to face any challenge life throws their way.
6. “There’s nothing bad about feeling happiness even when it escapes others.”
First of all, don’t look at this as a characteristic of a selfish person. I’m not saying that someone’s misery should make us feel happy. The thing is, some people who are having a hard time being happy can often judge you and make you feel uncomfortable and even guilty for being happy.
But, just because you’re happy, it doesn’t mean you’re not sensitive to their pain. It doesn’t mean you don’t want to help them or that you think you’re better than them. And because they fail to realize this, they expect you to hide your happiness. This kind of attitude is not only immature and unreasonable, but it’s also unfair.
Whichever response you choose, make sure you respond to them in a decent, polite manner. And if you see they’re still continuing to discourage you, be ready to disengage.
