 What exactly is a hater? Do you know someone who is a hater in your life? A hater is someone who's negative, who's critical, who judges you harshly for no reason. Someone who seems angry at you without a logical cause, or who roots for you to fail. Haters will get in your way, and it would certainly be so much easier without their contempt and scorn. So, by understanding why haters are the way they are, can be helpful when faced with one. The following are seven things you should know about your haters. 1. Jealousy and resentment are big factors. Success and haters go hand in hand, the reason being jealousy and resentment. The more successful you are, the more hate you're likely gonna get. Haters can actually be a sign that you're doing well, because they're most likely jealous of your success. While haters act superior, or like they're better than you, deep down, they know they aren't. They think you're where you are based on luck, instead of willpower and effort, so they waste time resenting you for your success, as opposed to trying to emulate it. 2. They want to bring you down in order to make themselves feel better. Are you familiar with schoolyard bullies? We're often told that they pick on others because they feel bad about themselves, and this is the same case with haters. Their insecurities are their main drive. Everyone handles their insecurities differently. Some people who weren't taught how to deal with their insecurities may unconsciously pick on someone else as an unhealthy coping mechanism. Rather than overcoming their insecurities, they use their hateful ways to help them feel better. But being a hater is not constructive, and will only make them feel worse in the end. 3. Haters aren't self-aware and probably don't know why they're so angry. Hate blinds people, so that the only thing they can see in front of them is this negative emotion. It makes people behave in angry, irrational ways without shedding light on the reasons behind it. In other words, they lack self-awareness. Which Courtney Ackerman describes as the ability to see yourself clearly and objectively through reflection and introspection. Haters are so focused on you that they don't stop to reflect on themselves as they should. 4. Haters have a fixed mindset. Have you heard about the theory of mindset? A fixed mindset is one that leads people to believe that skills and abilities are predetermined, that they can't be flexible, and that the world is either black or white as opposed to including shades of gray. It's part of the theory of mindset that founder Dr. Carol Dweck writes in her book Mindset, The New Psychology of Success. When we apply it to haters, we see that they think there's only a limited amount of abundance and success in the entire world and that you have taken a part of their share. They don't realize there are opportunities for them in other areas to be achieved in other ways. 5. They aren't happy. Do you think hating someone brings happiness to them? Haters generally aren't happy people. If they were, they wouldn't waste time dwelling on a negative feeling like hate. When people are unhappy, they try to fill the void with other things, and sadly, hate is one of those things. Even worse, the problem is cyclic. When you replace emptiness with hate, it only leads to more unhappiness. 6. They don't really know you. Haters only know enough about you to decide that you're a threat or that they would somehow benefit from your failure. They don't know what makes you unique and special. They don't know how hard you work or what you've been through. They aren't your true friends. They aren't even your friends, which is why you should be careful around them and about internalizing what they say. 7. They're projecting their fears onto you. As a general rule of thumb, people befriend those similar to them, right? This might not be true for haters. Instead of coexisting as friends, they may choose to go after them with negativity and act superior to them. This can be explained with something called projection. Psychologist Dana Heron explains it by saying the things people hate about others are the things that they hate within themselves. For example, when a hater is talking badly about how you're loud and obnoxious, it might be that they're self-conscious about how outspoken they are. They're afraid of being rejected for their own qualities, so they reject you instead. It's impossible to please everyone. People will form opinions about you no matter what you do, and some of those people's opinions will be hateful and unkind. If you're dealing with a hater, remember that it's about them and their own issues. You aren't under any obligation to make them like you. And more importantly, if they don't like you, you certainly don't have to let it upset you. Do you agree with these points? Do let us know if these points were sufficient to gain insight into the workings of a hater's mind. What are some of the other aspects you would like to learn about them? Also, please share this video with those you think might benefit from it. As always, thanks for watching.