I recently had an eye-opening conversation with a close friend of mine about people who bring us down literally every day and we both came to a common consensus.

People who add negative energy to our everyday lives have no right to an ounce of our time. I have struggled with this and I am sure many, MANY other people have as well. We all have people in our lives that we could honestly just do without, but because we all have hearts of gold, we put up with their constant negative energy.

I had a “friend” in my life who brought nothing but drama and anger to our interactions and you know what I did? I cut them out. No mercy, no folly, no care in the world.

I was at a new point in my life where I was rebuilding who I was and focusing on bettering myself because guess what, this life is mine and I can pick and choose who is in my inner circle and who I interact with. I am not saying you need to be selfish and make everything about you, but life is too short to waste it on courtesy and passive aggressiveness.

Our lives are made up of different stages and different obstacles and I am a firm believer that through whatever trial, celebration, or pause in your life, you should be surrounded by people who only love and support you and give you that boost you need to continue to flourish.

I was at a point in my life where I needed to flourish and spread my wings because I was building the foundations of my future. I looked around at the people who I interacted with every day and I seriously analyzed who raised me up and made me feel happy and who brought me down and just made me downright irritable.

Every time I interacted with this person, I walked away feeling irritated and icky. I am not naming names and I am not pointing fingers, but after freeing myself from their negative energy, I felt so much lighter. I needed to take a step back and reinvent my relationships and truly surround myself with people I love. This person may have been going through something or they may have been flourishing themselves, but all that mattered was their negative energy brought me down and that was something that needed to change.

I needed to make the change and I did. Let me tell you, I am so much better off with it.

Stop apologizing and stop tiptoeing. If someone is clipping your wings or holding you to the ground, push them aside because it is your time to fly honey.