I am a people person. I like meeting people. I like getting to know people. I like people.
When you meet people and get to know them you learn new things and widen your horizons. The flipside though of getting to know people better is that sometimes the better you get to know them you discover traits of their personality that may not gel well with yours.
It could be as trivial as someone not being on time as against your punctual trait or someone having a completely different political tilt than yours. It could also be something as serious as you discovering traits of a person that might make you uncomfortable. Then there is also a scary scenario where you discover that the person may not be your well-wisher and might be causing you harm, instead. What do you do then, when your like turns to dislike?
If the people who have shifted from the like to the dislike column are acquaintances then they could be swept to the side, without guilt. But what do you do when the people featured high on your dislike list are friends, family, or professional contacts? How you do handle your dislike then?
Simple, by being polite. When you interact, when you meet, or whenever you come across each other.
Does that make you hypocritical?
Well, does mud-slinging or name-calling make you honest then?
Being nice to someone you dislike does not mean you are putting up a fake front. It just means that your feelings for that person do not need to be displayed. Maturity calls for being the bigger person and behaving better, and yes there are times that only you are the only one following that rule.
The most important thing to remember is that we can only control our thoughts and actions, not someone else’s, and we must. So, be nice, especially when you don’t want to.
