It’s time to change this pattern—but we can only do that when we accept that we cannot avoid someone else’s inconvenience or distress; it’s not our job to make sure someone else is happy, and it’s not someone else’s job to cheerlead us as we assert ourselves. We need cooperation from others, but not approval. I regularly remind myself that in order to get what I need, someone else might have to be inconvenienced or annoyed, and this is okay. Someone else’s distress shouldn’t be a reason why I can’t meet my own needs.
