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How to Deal With Backlash After Setting Your Boundaries

Charlene Walters, MBA, PhD
3 min readJan 11, 2025
Photo by Aleš Čerin on Unsplash

I’m a firm believer in setting boundaries, but people don’t always respect them. Recently, I’ve had the need to stand up for myself when people have pushed those boundaries. A few of these instances were related to personal situations where I felt as if I was being disrespected when I tried to express my thoughts. In both cases, I felt that my opinion was ignored and almost dismissed. Another occurrence involved sticking up for myself when I was disrespected by a stranger who got angry and shouted derogatory insults at me in a situation that shouldn’t have escalated to that point if he had simply honored my request.

Because of these incidents, I’ve been giving a lot of thought to how I can stay grounded when dealing with people who don’t understand healthy boundaries or treating others with respect. When you find yourself in that situation, here are some things that can help you navigate and move through the exchange:

  1. Remain calm. The best thing to do is to not take it personally. Understand that it likely has more to do with them than you. Try to see their point of view and refrain from reacting, using a calm tone and listening.
  2. Be very direct and to the point. Set what your boundary is without overexplaining it. You don’t really owe anyone an explanation unless you feel that it will help improve a…

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Charlene Walters, MBA, PhD
Charlene Walters, MBA, PhD

Written by Charlene Walters, MBA, PhD

I'm a Business Mentor, Writer/Ghostwriter, Corporate Trainer, Curriculum Consultant, TV host and Author: https://www.ownyourother.com

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