Written by No normal person wants to be disliked by someone else. However, I’ve known many people in my life, myself included, who have compromised themselves just to be looked upon favorably by others.
I’ve come to believe that a man with no enemies is a spineless man plagued with low self-esteem, a man who bends (and eventually breaks). Believing in ourselves and what we value may not always be congruent with the values of others; people are going to disagree with us in life. People may even get miffed, or dislike us for what we believe, but that is okay.
Compromising who we are, our individual beliefs and values, is a long-term debt that our self-esteem will have to pay eventually. What we believe in our core, is a part of who we are. You cannot go against what you believe in your heart and maintain the same level of self-respect you had before doing so. Each line in the sand that is kicked away and re-drawn, brings us closer to losing who we know ourselves to be. How many politicians start-out with the best of intentions, only to compromise their values and pander to their constituents to win votes?
Our values and beliefs are the cornerstones of who we are. They support us, helping us to maintain a stable self-image of ourselves. You can only chisel-away at these cornerstones for so long before the entire structure collapses. Without our values and beliefs firmly in place, immovable, we begin to lose sight of who we are.
Yes, it is necessary to compromise or reevaluate maintaining values and beliefs that do not serve us well. However, what we believe and value at our core, what we know to be right, should never be compromised, not for money, not for politics, not for social acceptance, and not for love.
