Maybe it started as a baby when my parents dropped ice cubes down my diapers to make me dance. Perhaps it started when the neighbor boy ran me over with his bike after daring me not to cross the road. Or was it my college roommate who blasted her music loudest whenever I asked for quiet. It could have been the co-worker who told me to quit trying so hard because I was making the rest of them look bad, or the women at the cosmetic counter (why is it always the women at the cosmetic counter?) who waited on everyone else but me and the copped a rather unfriendly tone once she did.
Any and every jerkhead who thumps their finger against your chest and tries to hold you back or hold you down—anyone who deliberately tries to make you less or smashes your precious optimism when you're trying hard to be more—that's a bully. They come in all sizes, shapes and situations.
Think of your favorite superhero. Probably a vulnerable, flawed human being, trying to do what's right, to triumph good over evil. Then there's that moment when they enter their Bat Cave, or phone booth, or take their secret elixir, to rise up, to become impervious to, or even to crush that finger thumping against their, or anyone's chest.
No Bat Cave nearby? A little low on post-nuclear glowing green goo?
"At heart," author George Orwell said, "most people are heroic."
At least you can be, the moment you slide on your bully-proof vest.
It's time to look at your relationships and recognize who is making you feel less than, small or afraid and, with the power of your self-designed Bully-Proof Vest, obliterate them from your life!
The moment you stop being the victim, the moment you don your vest is the moment your life gets better..Bully For You!
