Reasons Why People Don’t Respect You!

Respect, as we know, is the prerequisite for interpersonal interactions. Once respect is gone, the relationship involved does not have long to live. Whether in professional or private life, disrespect must not become the manners of the hour.

As soon as boundaries are crossed or no longer recognized, an invisible dam is broken. Unfortunately, this circumstance cannot be undone. There are many reasons why our fellow human beings have no respect for us. We will show you the 6 most common ones in this article. 

1. You try to control others

No one appreciates being dominated or controlled. Even if you had the authority, say as a supervisor or superior, it is not a nice thing to assert that right. Control is a form of demonstration of power that genuinely powerful people can afford to do without. If, on the other hand, you can't help sticking your nose in other people's business all the time and forcing your opinion on everyone, respect for you will evaporate pretty soon.

You don't show any respect with your behavior, and respect is not a one-way street, as we all know. The more often you act petty and domineering, the faster your positive balance on your personal respect account will decrease. You are not only outing yourself as a dominant and begrudging character. With this behavior, you are also showing an enormous amount of weakness, and it is well known that the weak have a particularly hard time gaining respect. 

2. You apologize too often

The exact opposite of the control freak is the eternal guilty plea on two legs. Women in particular unfortunately still make this tactical mistake very often. They begin far too many of their sentences with: "I'm sorry, but..." and thus open the floodgates to the suspicion that they might actually always be to blame for something.

If you voluntarily put on the repentant robe every day, you will eventually get trapped in that role. If you are also a chronic "sorry-subscriber", try to consciously pay attention to how often you apologize to others in the course of a day. Every time you do so, you give them an indirect excuse to have less and less respect for you.

This does not have to be the fault of the others. You yourself manifest the thought in their perception that you are incompetent and incapable, because those who constantly make mistakes will eventually no longer be taken seriously. So be sparing with apologetic phrases. Use them sincerely when you really mess up, but never just as an empty phrase. Otherwise this will eventually become a kind of boomerang that will fall on your head sooner rather than later. 

3. You always put yourself in the center

Do you like to hold monologues without end, but never let those around you have their say? Only your opinion counts and everyone else has no idea anyway? With this behavior, you are actively contributing to the fact that in time no one will have a spark of respect left for you. You signal with your constant dominance of the conversation that you do not value the opinion of others.

Thus, the disrespectful behavior actually comes from you, the others react only accordingly, and in fact, appropriately. When respect is lost, it is never a one-sided affair. It is always the case that one side provides the cause and the other reacts accordingly. Even the most righteous and selfless among us humans would not tolerate disrespectful behavior forever, even if they are blessed with above-average understanding for their fellow human beings. 

4. You break your promises

Surely not everyone sees broken promises as radically as Erich Fried. He equated them with spoken crimes and thus unconsciously set a very high standard in terms of handshake quality. If you want to be quickly and deeply out of favor with your peers, promise them great things and never keep your promises.

No path leads to social extinction faster than being exposed as a phony or an imposter. What gets us the respect and approval of our peers is our actions, not our words. Discrepancy between these two is a sure ticket to social irrelevance. Sooner rather than later, no one will take a storyteller or a wordsmith seriously. The result is a distinct lack of respect. 

5. You don’t pay attention to your boundaries

You are not just treated badly, you also allow it. If you allow your own boundaries to be shamelessly crossed once and let yourself be treated disrespectfully and grudgingly, you give your consent to further encroachments with your silence, even if it's not easy for some people to stand up for themselves and the need for harmony keeps getting in the way for many of us. But the truth is that no one can defend our boundaries but ourselves.

Once you earn the reputation of being the nation's punching bag and court jester, word of this inglorious behavior toward you will spread like the latest rumor. To make matters worse, almost nothing comes easier to us than accepting bad behavior from others. Too tempting is the prospect of trampling on others without fear of consequences, to feel superior at least once in a while, because disrespect is one of the small man's means of self-assertion, as the German writer Rupert Schützbach acknowledged. 

6. You ignore the opinion of others

Anyone who doesn't let others have their say, consistently ignores their suggestions and ideas, and places no value whatsoever on a different point of view shouldn't be surprised if aspects no longer flow in. This behavior is not only extremely rude, it also shows a great lack of social competence and intelligence.

Why? Every person not only has an opinion. He or she also has knowledge and competence, which not everyone has. So not to consider all possible points of view on a matter is evidence of short-sightedness of the highest order. In the private sphere, this resonance may not go far. Sooner or later, you will find yourself alone on a wide corridor and wonder why you are no longer on the greeting list of your acquaintances.

This circumstance, however, becomes critical in a professional context. If you can't accept any opinion other than your own, you'll not only damage your reputation, but also your company at some point. 

Today's Conclusion: No respect, no character

Respect, as we all know, is always mutual. In some areas, you have to earn it first. In an interpersonal environment, however, it should be a matter of course. Without respect, no cooperation can succeed. The good news in this context is that we can do a great deal ourselves to ensure that we are accepted by others and treated as full, equal members of society.

We earn respect with our words, our behavior and, above all, with our actions. There is only so much we can do to change the way our fellow human beings perceive us. Our character, however, we can shape and optimize throughout our lives, or in the words of Hollywood legend Bruce Lee: "Knowledge gives us power, but character wins us respect and recognition." That's it for today.