Yes-man finally says ‘no,’ following his girlfriend’s advice to stop being a pushover when she demands he dogsit for 8 days – FAIL Blog

Being a people pleaser is exhausting, but to the self-aware pushovers and the doormat yes-men, it’s still easier to say yes and pivot your own plans than to fight the desires of everyone else in the room. Oddly enough, this logic stems, in my opinion, from a control of the self. As a people pleaser through and through, I can attest that it’s far easier to change my own behavior than to attempt to persuade everyone around me to yield to their demands. 

As backwards as it sounds, it IS simpler to be a yes-man or a people pleaser, because you can always rely on yourself. 

That said, a nasty side effect is that people see you as a doormat and take advantage of your agreeable disposition. However, with some careful coaching, this ex-empath apparently decided to put his needs first, only to be tested when his self-empowerment coach became his mighty aggressor.