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How do you get over the fact that not everyone will like you?

It’s obvious and you would be deluded into thinking everyone you interact with likes you.

But how do you feel it?

Context: I’m a course instructor and I get direct reviews on my lessons and around 95% of feedback is positive to very positive.

There’s less than 5% of my reviews that have real negative and non-constructive comments. Things like accusations of being incompetent or unprepared or full of shit, etc. They mention times I had technical difficulties or made a mistake (like giving an incorrect response)

Just by the numbers alone this is a very small minority overall. Yet these comments stick in my head and make me doubt my abilities.

So what are your strategies or ways you drown out this stuff?

61 comments
  • I go in assuming no one will like me and then I'm just pleasantly surprised whenever they do. Like, only 5% didn't like you? Not too fucking shabby, well done!

  • I’m too old to care. I like me and so does my family. That’s all that matters to me.

    1. Do they not like you for things intrinsic to your being or for you actions? If the former their opinion should hold little weight, if the later proceed to step two.
    2. Reflect on why someone of their perspective might feel that way about your actions and assess the merits.
    3. If you feel after sober contemplation that their critiques of your actions were well founded, adjust yourself going forwards. Otherwise remain as you were.

    If it is as low as 5% I'd imagine it reflects more so on where they are in their lives, having little knowledge of the situation.

  • Well I dont like everyone, so I have to assume that not everyone would like me.

    There's the old saying if you're not pissing someone off, you're not doing it right, also some people love to complain when given the opportunity, so take that with a grain of salt.

    If the majority of feedback is good, then you're fine, fuckthem whinging pricks, you keep smashing it in spite of the 5%.

  • Honestly, I just assume no one likes me. It makes life easier. I don't mean this in, like, an incel way or anything. More like I don't assume anyone likes me until they give me a reason to think otherwise. I don't assume they're hostile, but I do assume I probably just rub them the wrong way, and that, again, unless they give me a reason to believe otherwise, just move on. It makes life easier. I'm rarely disappointed with social interactions, and sometimes very, very pleasantly surprised

  • Honestly? I think you just have to age out of it. Like you said, it's just a fact that not everyone will, but if you care about being liked in the first place, chances are that only time giving you opportunity to not be liked, and absorb the lesson that it doesn't hurt anything, will move you past that desire.

    Me? I had jobs where it was damn near constant hate in one way or another. Patients with dementia on my main job, plus the occasional coworker that just didn't mesh. On my steadiest side job, I was a bouncer, and if you go a night without someone hating your guts, mark that shit in the calendar because it's your new holy day.

    So I had my give-a-shitter demolished by the time I could drink legally, and I'm not joking. By the time I was 21, I just did not give a fuck about being liked. It's nice when it happens, but it wasn't something I put any energy into at all. I just started doing my thing, being me, and enjoying the company of folks that are down with that.

    It actually made dating in specific so much more pleasant.

    But, yeah, you take enough hits on those reviews, start noticing the pattern that it's people you would never be able to satisfy in the first place, and it'll eventually roll off of you.

  • I just don't care. Just like I don't expect people to care whether I like them.

    Life's too short to have an opinion on everything and anyone.

  • The last time I and my surrounding people rubbed the wrong way, I asked why. I sought to see if something was wrong and at once they told me, even if in the second instance I was not informed. If there is no coordination, how they treat me is their doing. Years of being beat around would reinforce this. If the masses do something wrong, contrary to how many think of it, it doesn't become right just because they're the masses.

  • As a teacher I can say that in every class- adults or teenagers- there will be 5-10% who will love you no matter what, 5-10% who will dislike you no matter what, and everyone else will be in between.

    You have to learn not to take it personally because it isn't; you're just the body in the room when they happen to be feeling shitty about their day, their life, their job etc.

    Also remember that some people will just tick 10/10 in every category because they can't be bothered to do it properly, so don't let that go to your head either.

    What you need to do is reduce it to pure numbers. Weight loss, for example, is not about how you feel or even how you look; only the scales will tell you the complete and accurate results without bias.

    What you can measure, you can manage. Look at average scores over time across multiple categories. Is there a trend? If it's negative, then write up a plan to fix it. If it's positive, write up how you achieved it. Then show it to your boss and get a raise.

    At the end of the day the shitty commenters want you to think about them. I usually just laugh; there's always one in every group.

    1. You are human. Accept that imperfection is a built-in feature. No one is going make 100% of people happy. It’s not possible.
    2. 95% is great. Your lessons are more successful than most, I reckon. You know if you’re doing a good job or not. You’re the expert here - not the 5%.
    3. You have to accept that you can’t control how other people feel, how things affect them, or how they behave. Your lessons may just not reach certain types, and that is probably not your fault. It may not be their fault either, but they may not understand that.
    4. Students (especially teenagers and often college-age) often think they know the one right way that everything should be done. They’ll find out eventually, hopefully, that their views aren’t infallible, or they’ll grow up to be insufferable. Many students are also just vindictive in reviews if they find out a class isn’t as easy as they expected or if they got a bad grade when they didn’t study. The possibilities are so endless that you’ll just drive yourself insane if you try to take every criticism at face value, when they may well be mostly fiction. (Your being upset by the negative reviews may be their intention.)

    Look at other reviews of other instructors, teachers, professors, etc. and you’ll see a pattern. Grade yourself on a curve.

  • Time helps. I am not a teacher, but I coach.

    I feel like I wanted to be loved by my athletes or completely ignored by them when I started coaching. I didn't want anyone to dislike or doubt my abilities in any way. I went above and beyond to plan practices and be as legitimate as possible as a young coach close (enough) in age to the athletes. I needed firmly establish that I was an authority in the field and worth taking advice from.

    I'll be honest, some of my interactions with athletes during covid broke me. We went remote when facilities and the world shut down. Which meant trying to run fitness classes over zoom for whoever still wanted them. When we returned to in person practice, the athletes just came back cynical and critical (the entire world was just proven to be a shit show, so I understand where they are coming from). I felt like I had to justify my strategy every few weeks, of they did not see immediate results, they just questioned the value in coming to practice.

    It took time to build up a reputation with my athletes again. All i could do was continue to do the best job possible and trust my knowledge. We just celebrated having our first Olympian alumni, so things are going well! But not everyone has that same successful result, and want to blame someone for that. Some people will always think they are the smartest person in the room, and you can't change their way of thinking.

    For those 5% of negative reviews, the best case scenario is that you did the best possible job you could. And in a few years, they self reflect and think about how critical they were of you when it really wasn't anything. Worst case scenario, they tell the story of their instructor, who was in some way incompetent, and everyone just smiles, nods, and gets on with their lives. The otherwise overwhelmingly positive reviews show us that you are preparing your students for whatever the next step is. Some students might not see the value of your work immediately, or 2 years down the road, or ever. Just because they can not see the value in your work does not mean the value was not their.

  • Some people are just looking for something to complain about because they are unhappy people anyway. That has nothing to do with you. Some people are complete idiots, go read some Amazon reviews. My favorite is about a Rice Paddle (plastic) that you only use with an electric rice maker. One reviewer said it was crap because it melted. Clearly they used it with a regular pan and had no idea what they bought. If you like yourself and the people you care about and respect like you, no one else really matters. It's nice to be liked, but respecting and caring for yourself is the most important thing to remember. And sometimes (too many times actually), having some people like you can be a liability. Some people are just horrible and will latch on to you and spread their toxicity. It can be a real gift to not be liked by these people. Not being liked is not always a bad thing. The Sun shines on both sides of the planet!

  • I just stopped caring. Why should it matter if people like me? Life is a very short, fleeting construct. Wasting time worrying about what some other human thinks of me makes literally no difference in the grand cosmos. I’d rather put my energy toward something interesting.

  • Indifference. They let just any ignorant sack of shit with working thumbs access review pages; and a lot of people aren't just ignorant in this day and age, they are proudly and willfully ignorant. The only people whose critique I take seriously are those I know and trust, everyone else can suck-start a chainsaw imo.

61 comments