{"id":26,"date":"2014-04-02T16:30:22","date_gmt":"2014-04-02T16:30:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/sassyspirit\/?p=26"},"modified":"2014-04-14T18:42:06","modified_gmt":"2014-04-14T18:42:06","slug":"the-nice-girl-trap","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/sassyspirit\/2014\/04\/the-nice-girl-trap.html","title":{"rendered":"The Nice Girl Trap"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Have you ever fallen into the &#8220;Nice Girl&#8221; trap?<\/p>\n<p>Do you feel like when you ask for what you want, you&#8217;re selfish?<br \/>\nDo you feel like when you set boundaries, you seem to come off mean?<br \/>\nDo you have a hard time asking for what you want?<br \/>\nDo you have a\u00a0difficult time charging people for your services or time, never raise your rates, do\u00a0everything for free?<br \/>\nDo you feel like it&#8217;s the end of the world if someone is mad at you?<\/p>\n<p>If you answered yes to these questions, you have fallen into the trap! It&#8217;s easy to find yourself there. It&#8217;s happened to the best of us. There is help. You are all you need.\u00a0 Now, before we start, take inventory of where you&#8217;re at and don&#8217;t be embarrassed.\u00a0 We fall into patterns, like habits, by accident.\u00a0 But we want to live on purpose.\u00a0 You may have met a not so nice woman, think Meryl Streep in Devil Wears Prada, and you secretly wanted to be more like that.\u00a0 You want to command, demand, and feel fierce and powerful.\u00a0\u00a0 Really, you just want to be more confident and assertive.\u00a0 We can find a happy medium as women.\u00a0 My mom always says that in business it was tougher for us to be bosses.\u00a0 That there was a fine line between assertive and aggressive.\u00a0 It was one of the reasons I&#8217;d find I had a block in selling and the business world.\u00a0 I didn&#8217;t want to be pushy.\u00a0 My friend Edie Weinstein&#8217;s mom always told her to walk in like she owned the joint.\u00a0 I always admired strong and successful women who did it with grace and ease.\u00a0 I&#8217;m trying to model that for my daughters now.\u00a0 You can be a good person without being caught in the &#8220;nice girl&#8221; trap.<\/p>\n<p>How do you get out of it?\u00a0 First, you have to become a<strong> COP<\/strong> to your own thoughts and police them.<\/p>\n<p><strong>NO:<\/strong><br \/>\n<strong><em>Comparing<\/em> yourself to others<\/strong>&#8211; There will always be someone nicer than you. Who does more and never cares if she gets credit. She thinks of things you wouldn&#8217;t even dream of. . .and everyone loves her. Who cares? You&#8217;re awesome too.<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>Opinions<\/em> of others mattering more than your own<\/strong>&#8211;\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Your opinion of yourself must trump all others. What other people think of you is none of your beeswax. What they think is colored through the lens of THEIR perspective. You are an interpretation of their experience.<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>People<\/em> pleasing-<\/strong> You cannot do and be everything to everyone. It is impossible. Some people won&#8217;t like you. . .no matter what. Remember, some people don&#8217;t like chocolate.<\/p>\n<p>Focus on being the truest you. That is all you can do. Your relationships will be richer and more fulfilling. You will be a LOT happier too. The nice girl trap is draining. You&#8217;ll never feel vibrant and full of life if you are afraid to be you and feel your value is only in being nice. Be kind. It&#8217;s different. It comes from the heart. It&#8217;s deeper. All this self-love starts with your thoughts. Be kind in your mind. Think good things about yourself.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Have you ever fallen into the &#8220;Nice Girl&#8221; trap? Do you feel like when you ask for what you want, you&#8217;re selfish? Do you feel like when you set boundaries, you seem to come off mean? Do you have a hard time asking for what you want? Do you have a\u00a0difficult time charging people for&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":568,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>The Nice Girl Trap - Sassy Spirit<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, nofollow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Nice Girl Trap - Sassy Spirit\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Have you ever fallen into the &#8220;Nice Girl&#8221; trap? Do you feel like when you ask for what you want, you&#8217;re selfish? Do you feel like when you set boundaries, you seem to come off mean? Do you have a hard time asking for what you want? Do you have a\u00a0difficult time charging people for&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/sassyspirit\/2014\/04\/the-nice-girl-trap.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Sassy Spirit\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-04-02T16:30:22+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2014-04-14T18:42:06+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"jperry\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The Nice Girl Trap - Sassy Spirit","robots":{"index":"noindex","follow":"nofollow"},"og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"The Nice Girl Trap - Sassy Spirit","og_description":"Have you ever fallen into the &#8220;Nice Girl&#8221; trap? Do you feel like when you ask for what you want, you&#8217;re selfish? Do you feel like when you set boundaries, you seem to come off mean? Do you have a hard time asking for what you want? 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