The Great Acting Blog: “Dealing With Haters”
Haters. That rather sad and lonely section of our society. They have received a boon in recent years with the rise of social media: they can use a false name, invent a profile for themselves and display an anonymous pic and harass anyone, anywhere, with their special venom reserved for those who try to accomplish something remarkable. Haters are people slowly rotting in the acid of their own bitterness, they’re hung-up on what might have been and have an uncanny knack of taking everything personally. You needn’t be overly saddened by them once you understand that their efforts to cut you down are only a desperate attempt to increase their sense of their own self-worth (because of course, they couldn’t do that by actually accomplishing something remarkable). They are driven by resentment and personal dissatisfaction. They despise those who think for themselves, who have the courage to draw their own conclusions, those who create and envision instead of those who simply carry out orders.
The first step in dealing with haters, is realising how time consuming they can be. If one of them comes at you (in cyberspace or in reality) don’t get sucked in. Don’t let them turn your mind away from your objectives. Remain focussed. This is not the easiest thing to do when you feel as though you’ve just been slapped in the face with a custard pie, but it is essential otherwise you’ll be blown off course.
They say the best way to get over a betrayal is to not commit one yourself when the opportunity arises. The same is true of haters: if you’ve suffered at their hands, the best thing to do is not become a hater yourself. How easy and soothing it might be to lash out and even the score. But lashing out doesn’t even the score, infact, the reverse is true: you were winning until you did that, and in so doing you lost focus on your objective. Lashing out signifies that you just lost, losing focus is defeat.
Ignore the haters, stay focussed on your goals.
