Wanted: Safe People

It's a pity that I feel I need to read a book to help me identify people who are 'unsafe', but in the reading of this book some things are becoming clearer to me (at last). Primarily, if I've spent most of my life surrounded by unsafe people, I already know who they are (they have dominated my life), otherwise, I would not have picked up the book to read.

I haven't read this book cover-to-cover, but I get the gist of it. 'Safe' people have traits that are the opposite of the unsafe folks I know...with twenty identifiable traits even!! It's good that I've read the list. Now I know, without a doubt, what to look for.

Unsafe people fall into three main categories: abandoners, critics, and irresponsibles. I bet you know a few. I hate to admit it, but I am guilty of falling into these categories myself at times which leads me to the next thought.

I won't spend time anymore talking endlessly about the 'unsafe people' I know or the influence they've had on me. What a waste!! They are their own worst enemy/problem. That I've been effected by them is unfortunate. Though they've left me feeling that the world is possibly full of nothing but unsafe people, that is just not true. To focus so much of my time and attention to them, is self-defeating, and truly gives them more power than they deserve. I won't continue to allow this.

How simple a concept. I just need to 'let it go'....it IS that simple! I need to concentrate on being a safe person myself. In doing so, I will continue to spot those who are not, and to avoid the behavior they would want to project onto me if I am willing to let them. Knowing who I am, hopefully the opposite of them, will make this possible. My behavior will leave them to deal with their own issues if I do not devote so much of my energy to them....something I've been guilty of most of my life.

I was constantly defending myself from unsafe people, or I was busy talking and obsessing about the things they would do to me. I've truly spent too much of my valuable time...my very life....with them at the center. No more!! It's truly time to move on...get over it...leave those people to themselves and out of my life...at least as an 'influence'.

What a relief!! Just the thought is liberating!! I've spent too much time in defensive mode. Doing so just isn't living life to the fullest.

Recent events have left me to realize just how short life can be. I've got a lot of living yet to do. I can't make up for the time I've lost, but I can vow to embrace the time I have left and run with it!!

And I will!!!!