How to be ruthless? Is that even ethical? In proper context, yes! Sometimes it’s even mandatory if you want to keep your sanity.
The truth is, this world isn’t just for overly soft people since not everyone is going to reciprocate your soft-spoken and considerate nature.
Most people are going to take your softness for weakness and then see you as an easy target.
So, what can I do? Be ruthless. You should know how to be ruthless without necessarily being a jerk.
And that’s what we are going to uncover in this article. If it sounds interesting, then let’s get started.
Why Being Ruthless Is Good and Necessary
You must’ve seen a lot of people preaching to you about how to be humble, considerate, and kind. That’s very appreciable but they fail to draw a line, that is ‘to what extent’.
Okay, so I’m ready to be kind, I want to be kind but to what extent?
If I can see other people walking all over me and treating me like garbage, should I still be kind?
Of course not. If you are kind all the time regardless of who the other person is and what’s his mentality, you’re only inviting trouble as he will find it easy to pick on you.
Aggression and ruthlessness are tools in your arsenal. Surely, it can cause destruction if not deployed correctly but if you are looking to throw them away in the name of embracing kindness, you’re making a major mistake.
You’re basically rendering yourself defenseless, and now since you’re defenseless, you can’t pose any threat to anyone and will be defenseless yourself.
You are now kind only because you don’t have the option to be ruthless or you are afraid to confront people. But what you should do is have the potential to be ruthless and dangerous, but keep it under voluntary control.
3 Ways to Be Ruthless
Now we’ve seen that being kind isn’t a thumb rule for all cases as it attracts people who will treat you like a doormat.
However, to overcome this, some people become overly aggressive and come across as totally rude and ill-mannered.
Like everything in life, it requires a balance to not be so soft that you’ll attract offenders and not so tough that you begin to repel everyone.
But how? Glad you asked.
Through the following ways. You’ll learn how to be ruthless just in the right amount and maintain ethics.
1. Develop A Warrior Mindset
Your mindset is like a foundation. Doesn’t matter what you want to build, if your mindset is not aligned with what you want, you’ll always run into trouble.
This is also a reason why people fall back into their old patterns after making a little progress, because your mindset is what drives you as a whole.
It is also one of the crucial steps in cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) for fixing your habits and negative patterns.
To be ruthless, you have to remind yourself every day that your life is your responsibility and no one is coming to save you.
You may gather support from your friends and family but there is a limit and they can only do so much for you since they are also struggling in their lives.
To fully change your life, you have to take responsibility. There are no shortcuts.
You have to take charge of everything whether good or bad. Own it.
People fail and then blame everyone but themselves. They blame external events, how the world is cruel, and similar petty things but you don’t have to go path.
That’s only for losers. If you’re failing somewhere, instead of blaming the outside world, try upgrading yourself and pushing even harder.
If you transform your mindset, half the battle is won since your mindset is what controls everything from your actions and behavior.
Pro Tip
Reprogram your mindset by spending only 10 minutes and reminding yourself every day about what you want to be. Do affirmations and gratitude practice, it will keep the negative thoughts at bay and make your process much smoother and quicker.
2. Don’t Listen to Loser’s Excuses
Being empathetic is a great virtue that forges strong bonds between people.
This is what makes humans, human.
But some people, especially the losers and whiners who seem to love to whine about everything, are always on the lookout for such empathic people.
They have nothing to do in life other than blame everything. What they want is someone to whom they can feed their negativities.
The problem for the empathic person starts when he involves himself in the problems of the whiners. You might have faced such an incident in your life too where you encountered a sad person whose problems you listened attentively.
You then gave him your best advice but he didn’t even seem to listen to it and continued whining. Even sometime later, you are amazed why he still hasn’t taken any initiative you had told him instead still keeps complaining.
He’s now narrating these life struggles to the other person instead and makes you think as if it’s the only thing he’s going to do.
Actually, these people are lazy enough to take any step and of course, are going to fail. But since acknowledging your own fault isn’t easy, these people rationalize their failures by blaming the external world and undermining everything. They will blame luck, people, the world, and literally everything.
If you want to be ruthless, keep yourself away from such people since they are not sincere with themselves and only want someone to listen to their sad stories. Whatever advice you may give them will be ignored therefore save your energy and mind your business.
3. Be Clear to Draw Boundaries
If you want to be ruthless, one of the best pieces of advice I can give you is to draw line early on to avoid people storming your life and let them know what’s their limit.
It’s so common to find other people interfering in your life too much, dictating what to do and what not to do.
When we meet someone new, we are conscious of our words and behavior to not offend the other person. But as time passes and we become more frank, the once clear boundaries begin to get grey.
This is when you’ll feel the other person is just getting too much involved. They may try to force you to do something you wouldn’t want to.
You may ignore this feeling thinking it not to be a big deal but the other party will see it as consent to penetrate even further. They’ll one day get too involved and make your life a living hell. Therefore, you should stop this issue the first day you notice.
When someone says something you don’t like, be polite but always react. Let them know you didn’t like it and would appreciate it if it didn’t happen again.
This will send a subconscious message to the person and will let him know what’s his limits.
Conclusion
Congratulations! You’ve made it to the end of the article.
You’ve now learned how to be ruthless without being a jerk. You could also see why being ruthless is so important if you don’t want to be an easy victim to negative people.
It of course comes with a caution to utilize your ruthlessness and aggression ethically since many people begin to exploit it.
Which of the tips do you find to be the most powerful? Let us know in the comments below!
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