Seeing The Best In People Can Backfire On You

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Seeing the best in people can backfire on you. It can encourage you to give out second chances to people who never even deserved a first. It can trick you into staying in toxic situations for longer than you should. It can make it much easier for manipulative people to take advantage of you.

Seeing the best in people can cause you to come across as a pushover. It can create the illusion of weakness. It can make you seem gullible, like an easy target.

Meanwhile, skeptics are always on the lookout for liars, cheaters, scoundrels. They keep their hearts guarded. They avoid letting anyone inch too close in order to protect themselves. Skeptics believe the world is a dark place. They believe everyone else is out to get them. They believe they need to take precautions in order to stay safe.

Even though it would be nice to avoid a heartbreak or two, I never want to think like a skeptic. I would rather see the best in people, even if it means I make a fool out of myself in the process. Even if it means I end up wasting weeks of time on someone who turns out to be a bad person.

I would rather see the best in people because I have a lot of love to share. I don’t want to tuck my feelings away in my chest. I want to wear my heart on my sleeve. I want to express my emotions without fear of what could happen once they’re released into the world.

Yes, I get attached to people easily and get hurt easily, but that’s okay. I’m willing to take the risk of getting my heart shattered if it means there’s a chance I could end up living my own version of happily ever after.

Maybe it’s dangerous to be an optimist — but it’s just as dangerous to be a pessimist. It’s dangerous to assume everyone is your enemy. It’s dangerous to assume the worst case scenario is the most likely scenario. It’s dangerous to assume someone is a bad seed before you even have a chance to get to know them.

Whether I train myself to see the best in people or see the worst, there are still going to be moments when I get hurt, so I might as well choose the positive route. I might as well look at other human beings as my friends until they prove otherwise instead of thinking of them as my enemies until they prove otherwise.

Even though seeing the best in people can backfire on me, I’m still going to consider it a good thing. A blessing. It’s a sign of my soft heart. It’s a sign of my relentless positivity.

When it comes down to it, seeing the best in people is better than the alternative. I would rather give the wrong person a chance than push the right person away. I would rather see the best in this world than focus on the worst.