Humans are judgmental, and while most people won’t outright insult you, they’ll look down on you.
Our minds form very quick, firm opinions about people.
If you think someone looks down on you, honestly, they probably do.
If something feels off with the way they treat you, your gut is trying to tell you something.
But what would they look down on you for? Why?
Well, we’ve investigated this and found 15 reasons why people look down on you.
If you recognize any of these in yourself, it’s time to make a drastic change.
Don’t worry if you don’t feel like reading; you can enjoy the video below or watch it on YouTube:
1
People assume you’re stupid because you lack social skills
When you lack social and communication skills, people will think that you’re stupid.
When you first meet someone, saying nothing at all or loudly saying the wrong thing gives you a one-way ticket down the social ladder.
Good communication is just as important as good ideas and if you can’t convey your thoughts and ideas properly, people are going to think that you don’t have any.
When you first meet people, it’s best to share some information about yourself and then ask questions about them.
This fills in the conversation gaps and all you have to do is listen.
From there, it’s time to brush up on your social and conversational skills.
2
You allowed someone to take advantage of you, and now everybody does the same
There’s a line between being kind and being a doormat.
When you’re a doormat, you allow people to exploit your kindness.
No matter how nice you are, people will lose respect for you if they see that they can keep pushing you and you’ll keep making allowances for them.
Others will watch it happen and lose respect for you too.
Even your friends and family will lose respect for you if they watch someone treat you like a doormat without you standing up for yourself.
They don’t look down on you maliciously, but their faith in your strength and confidence diminishes.
3
Because of your genuine lack of experience
People will look down on you for not having any experience.
You reach a point in your life when you realize that you don’t know much at all.
Before that, though, you think you know everything.
We equate experience with competence, value, and knowledge, so naturally, we’ll think that someone with experience will bring more to the table.
Sometimes it’s true, sometimes it isn’t.
Everyone has to start somewhere.
Whenever you have to start at square one, there are going to be people looking down on you because they think that you have no idea what you’re doing.
The question is: Are you going to work towards proving them wrong? Or right?
4
Your life has no direction
You don’t have to follow a traditional life path of college, graduation, work, marriage, or a house for people to respect you, but you do have to move forward in some way.
You have to show some personal growth and some awareness.
In fact, you don’t have to focus solely on your career and financial success for your life to be on an upward trajectory, but it is important to focus on your emotional intelligence and self-awareness.
With that increase in emotional intelligence, the trajectory of your career will have a knock-on effect.
It may not go where most people expect it to go, but your life will still have direction.
You will have direction.
You’ll know where you want to end up and you’ll have the tools to work towards that.
5
They have nothing to look up to
It’s great to surround yourself with inspirational people, but you can’t be an innovation vampire.
You have to bring something to the table too.
When you don’t, people will look down on you. They’ll think you’re boring and that you have nothing going for yourself.
Humans want to be inspired by other humans.
We crave it. We’re drawn to people who are doing great things and who can inspire us to do great things too.
When you’re the one sitting there listening to someone talk about all their achievements and you can only contribute compliments, they’re going to think they’re above you.
Our Reinvent Mastery course can help you turn into the person everyone looks up to.
It’s an overhaul of your life.
In six months, you can completely turn your life around—change your career, your living situation, and how people see you.
This is your biggest and best chance to be that person.
Sign up after reading this article. You can get $100 off the course with the code “framework”.
And if it doesn’t work after six months, we’ll give your money back.
That’s how much we believe in this course.
6
You have no respect for yourself and it shows
People who don’t respect themselves will not only put themselves down in front of you, but they’ll look like they put themselves down when they’re on their own too.
There’s a sadness to them, a look of defeat.
Your outside appearance mirrors what you feel on the inside and you just don’t look well put together.
You look like you’ve neglected yourself and that you’re not comfortable with how you look and feel.
Unfortunately, people will find these cracks in you and use them to hurt you. They might make jokes about your weight, whether you’ve washed your hair or ironed your clothes.
Don’t give that ammunition.
Take care of your appearance because it’s the clearest indication of how much you value yourself.
7
You fall into the same traps over and over again
Imagine your friend gets a call from some faraway prince who has inheritance money for them.
All they have to do is give their bank details and they’ll get the money.
They do it, all their money gets stolen, and in a month’s time, a rich uncle calls from faraway phones and the scam happens all over again.
It sounds ridiculous, doesn’t it?
This is how your friends feel when you fall into the same traps over and over again.
- When you go back to a toxic relationship
- When you stay in a bad work environment
- When you go out on a bender and you complain about anxiety and bad hangovers the next day
They have to listen to you complain about it and then watch you do it all again, ignoring their warnings.
It’s understandable that they’re going to lose respect for you and look down on you.
8
You constantly complain about fixable problems
There are a few things more annoying than people who constantly bring problems to the table and don’t offer any solutions, especially when it’s their own problems.
It shows that you lack initiative; it shows that you don’t actually care about the problem; you just like the sound of your own voice.
You know what it means to act as if a common, fixable problem is catastrophic and from which there is no way back: the comprehension that it is impossible to recover from.
Your relationships.
People are going to think that you’re not cut out for normal life problems and they’re going to lose trust and respect for you. They’ll think you’re a lifelong amateur.
9
You stay in a dead-end place, hoping for a miracle
People will look down on you when you stay in a dead-end place, hoping for a miracle.
Where’s that miracle coming from, exactly?
Who’s going to save you if you can’t even do the work to save yourself?
You might not think you’re part of this group, but if you feel stagnant right now and you’re not doing something every single day to change that, then you’re one of them.
You’re waiting for a miracle, for a response to that one message or application you sent months ago.
News flash: it’s not coming, so you better get moving.
Because the people in your life are watching you wait, and with every moment you stay stagnant, they’re losing esteem for you.
10
You are a shadow of who you once were
Just because you were an awesome person in the past doesn’t mean that people are going to look up to you forever.
When you lose your personality and become a shadow of yourself, people lose faith in you.
To them, it seems like you’re not as strong as they thought you were.
They’ll give you some grace at first, but the longer you take to rebuild, the more faith they’ll lose in you.
We all have downward phases in life, times when things don’t go as planned and a huge piece of us gets cut off. We have to rebuild ourselves, and well, where would we even start?
This is exactly what Reinvent Mastery is about.
It’s a chance to shed the shadow and be a different version of your awesome self again.
Or shed the shadow and become a totally new person.
It’s not just possible; it’s practically a given if you follow the course. It’s a first-class ticket to a whole new life.
11
You don’t know how to set boundaries
Boundaries tell other people what you expect from them.
They tell them what you value and how you want to be treated.
If you’re always going with the flow and allowing other people to make decisions, then they’ll think that you don’t have any opinions of your own.
If you always say yes to things, people might take advantage of that and think that you’re not assertive or clear about your needs.
It’s not about saying no; it’s about defining who you are and what you stand for, which is an important part of building healthy, fulfilling relationships.
Without boundaries, you’re letting people know that you don’t value your own needs.
So why should they value them?
12
You are overcompensating (and people can see through it)
Overcompensating often comes with lies and exaggeration and it’s pretty easy to see through this.
It’s actually awkward.
People can see that you’re trying to cover up flaws and insecurities.
This makes you seem extremely insecure and fake.
Humans are drawn to authenticity and we can pick up on bogus people pretty quickly.
They won’t trust you. And the more you try to hide your flaws, the more obvious they become.
Be honest about your flaws and insecurities.
Find ways to connect with people through them and actively work on them instead of trying to hide them.
13
People smell your lack of confidence
If you have low self-esteem your behavior is often hesitant and afraid; you’re submissive and seem weak to other people.
You can also come across as disinterested or incompetent so it’s hard to trust you to do things or to feel like you genuinely want to be a part of something.
You have to build your confidence if you want people to look up to you.
It’s why in our app, one of our first courses is on How to Build Your Self-Esteem From the Ground Up.
The course looks at the psychology and neuroscience behind building your self-esteem so that you can learn where self-esteem comes from and how to create it even when it seems like you have nothing at all.
You can create self-esteem, but it’s going to take some work.
14
Other people use you for their own benefit
People look down on you because they use you for their own benefit.
They don’t view you as an equal because if they did, they couldn’t justify using you.
They have to look down on you so that their actions don’t seem as exploitative.
It’s easier to take advantage of someone if they seem less important or deserving of respect.
This mindset is totally unfair and harmful, but it allows people to wash away any guilt they may have.
This is why you have to set clear boundaries for yourself and other people.
And stand up for yourself. If you feel like someone is using you, they probably are.
15
You try to make everybody happy – and get along with everyone – to avoid disagreements.
This one might surprise you.
But people will look down on you if you try to make everyone happy.
When you try to get along with everyone to avoid disagreements, you seem flakey and disloyal.
It seems like you don’t care about standing up for what’s right; you just care about being popular.
You come across as inauthentic and not assertive. It’s like you don’t have your own personality and you’ll say what anyone wants to hear to make them happy.
As a friend, it’s hard to trust someone like this.
It feels like they’ll betray you the moment your back is turned and then smile and deny it to your face.
Authenticity and confidence are the name of the game here.
If people can see that you stay true to your values and know your worth, they’ll look up to you. They’ll treat you the way you deserve to be treated.
These are the 15 reasons we found why people look down on you. Analyze, learn,
