BLACKLISTED: 5 People a Young Professional can live without

1. The "chronic complainer." We all have moments where we feel down. We all have moments where we need to vent our frustrations in order to feel better. The chronic complainer makes a habit of engaging in these behaviors. They are the person who can never find a bright side. They find the light at the end of a dark tunnel and extinguish it. Just as misery loves company so does the complainer. When surrounded by so much negativity it can halt your creative juices. When the complainer starts complaining stop them immediately and ask them to name 5 things they are thankful for. If that doesn’t work you have a chronic complainer on your hands and you need to get away fast! No need to be surrounded by unnecessary negativity. Which leads to...

2. The "Negative Nancy." Have you ever met someone who is in a bad mood on a sunny day? They have the unique ability to dim the brightest rainbows and put a damper on the happiest mood. No matter how much of a good mood you are in (which is obvious because you have a huge smile on your face), they have a way of changing your mood with their negative attitude. A Negative Nancy is similar to a chronic complainer in that they both fail to appreciate the little things that make life matter the most. They would rather spend their time complaining. Do us all a favor and cut them loose. Pretty soon they will end up alone and will have time to reflect. Hopefully, this will prompt a metamorphosis into a Positive Patty.

3. The "one upper" (OU). An OU is someone who instead of being happy for your accomplishments feeds into the impulse to "one up" you. An OU has to be the best in storytelling and they always find a way to tell a better story than you. The conversation may go like this:

You: "Guess what? I had a fantastic Valentine's day. I woke up to breakfast in bed and then we went to dinner and a movie. We decided to keep it simple this year since Valentine's Day is everyday for us."

OU: "Really? Well your Valentine's day wasn't as good as mine because I had breakfast in bed AND lunch at a fancy restaurant AND a blue box. I win!"

Notice how the "one upper" fails to congratulate you or even feign any satisfaction from your wonderful experience.

Need another example? Consider it an early birthday present:

You: "I had the worst night ever. I had way too much to drink. I woke up on the park bench outside of my school."

OU: "I had a bad night too. I had too many drinks and I woke up at the zoo in the lion's cage. I had to fight my way out and I still made it to work on time."

The entire time you speak with such person you may feel like you are in competition. When you proclaim that you had a bad day the one upper confesses they had the worst day in the history of the universe. If you suspect a person of being a one upper you can confirm your suspicions by paying closer attention to their reaction to your achievements. Most times, this "one upper" is also a liar.

If they really had so much to say, they would say it unprovoked but it is something about when YOU speak that makes them want to make life a continuous episode of "anything you can do, I can do better."

If you determine said person is a one upper then you should stay away. There are plenty of places for competition and a friendly conversation is not one of them.

4. The "Insolvents." Yes, I said it. Allow me to make myself clear. By insolvents I mean people who lack resources, confidence and everything in between. Their self esteem is in the negative and so is their bank account. A person with low self esteem doesn't know their worth and a person with no money aint worth nothing. Imagine you have 2 friends. One has extremely low self esteem and one is low on funds. You hear about a party and you have a connect who can get the 3 of you on VIP list at your favorite hotspot for an extremely discounted rate (.02 short of free). The friend with low self esteem will not want to tag along because they do not feel worthy of tagging along and risk being surrounded by people they think are much better than they are. The friend with low funds could only go if you can spot them a $20. Get my drift? Good! That’s why we are here *does hand to eye move* Either way, surround yourself with confident people with enough funds to support the simplest forms of entertainment and I promise you your life will be better for it.

5. The "moocher." There is A MILE between sharing lunch with a friend and starting to wonder how much money they REALLY owe you. Friends will exchange a few dollars here and there but when there is no exchange it becomes a problem. I am not encouraging you to drop your friends when they fall upon hard times, but do not allow your kindness to be the reason you fall on hard times yourself. Draw a line and leave it. Do not let them pass go, do not let them borrow $200.

I know this list isn't exhaustive share your list of people you can live without. Do you have stories about your interactions with one of the 5 people listed above? Do you have a guilty heart because you just realized you are one of those 5 people (don’t worry, if you're a friend of mine I'd tell you if you're one of THOSE people)? Share your thoughts in the comment area. The platform is yours...