The idea of a crab mentality is essentially symbolic. It’s based on the idea that if you fill a large bucket full of crabs, they would always pull one another back down, preventing anyone of them from escaping the bucket.
This is essentially a metaphor that can be applied in numerous social situations because some people like to drag others down whenever they see them succeed!
Unfortunately, this can be the case in numerous situations, whether it’s with the people you’re working with, people who see you succeed on social media through stories, posts, or videos, and the most heartbreaking of all… the people you consider ‘friends’!
The truth of the matter is that this crab mentality can crucially prevent you from success whether it be in reaching a certain goal, or your personal growth and development. It can prevent you from success because many struggle to identify people with that crab mentality, making it an underlying disease that can sneak its way into your life and plague your progress.
Nonetheless, there are a plethora of ways you can identify people who possess this crab mentality, or identify your very own crab mentality, and avoid suffering its consequences on YOU!
Here are the ultimate reasons a crab mentality will inevitably lead to a downfall in your personal growth and how you can tackle this awful mindset.
A lot of the time, the sole reason why people can get consumed by the crab mentality simply has to do with not noticing that they are being influenced by the crab mentality.
Many people with a crab mentality can often put it to use sneakily such that the people they may use it on don’t even realize it. In many instances, the people you surround yourself with can naturally cause you to develop the crab mentality over time due to the social environment you’re brought up in.
It might be that the traits and qualities you’ve inherited were taught to you in a way that you’d hard-wired to think was morally correct, when in hindsight they can display an underlying crab mentality!
Whatever it is, knowing examples of crab mentality is easily the best way to avoid these cases…
Being supported during your personal growth is a big part of accomplishing goals and achievements. Being able to get the right advice on how to improve, the dos and don’ts, and what you might be doing wrong that’s making you just shy of a personal goal is the perfect way to grow as a person.
It’s what makes the journey smoother to success because you’re able to learn from your mistakes a lot quicker than if you went about a task alone!
Surrounding yourself in a social environment where people will belittle your achievements or choose to laugh at your failure to accomplish a certain goal is only going to demotivate you and stop you from learning from those mistakes – And it’s all because those people know you’re on the brink of achieving something and will doing anything to stop you from doing it out of jealousy for the sake of bringing you down to their level!
Assess the motives of the people you surround yourself with, whether that be friends, relatives, family members, work colleagues, or classmates. Look at how they treat you and the way they act towards you and other people.
Are they kind? Do they offer advice if you tell them about a situation you’re dealing with? Or, do they choose to laugh at you in times of need?
See if they’re supportive – Do they get emotional when they see you need some help? Body language is a great way to see their genuine feelings for you and good evidence that they support you! Advice and constantly being by your side are another.
The sooner you’re able to make a firm and confident conclusion about their mentality, the quicker you can act upon it!
From here, you can make an informed decision about whether or not you want to keep these people in your life! If you believe they are supportive, prove to them why they deserve you in their lives as much as you deserve them! Show that you are equally supportive; that way, you’re telling them you don’t have a crab mentality yourself!
If you believe they are going to bring you down and not support your personal growth, avoid them as much as you can. This can be hard, especially if you’re stuck at work, school, or in a group with them, but avoiding them, or ignoring them as much as possible is the most effective way to not be dragged down by their crab mentality.
At the end of the day, the most important thing is that you should find people who share common interests with you, which is achieving goals, whether it be together or personally, and helping support one another on the road to success.
We’ve so far discussed how people suffer from the crab mentality because it’s difficult to identify in our daily lives. Nonetheless, there can still be instances where we can suffer from it, even if we know that someone we may be around possesses the crab mentality!
But why is this the case?
Well, it all has to do with wasting our energy on these people.
The fundamental psychology behind the crab mentality is that if using it against someone it aims to get into their minds, or under their skin if you will!
In many ways, it can serve as a distraction to one’s productivity, hence hindering progress toward a personal goal!
Let’s say you’re having a conversation with a crab-minded guy. Perhaps you discuss this job promotion you’ve achieved which requires incredibly hard work to earn and the guy says you’re never going to succeed, or belittles your accomplishment.
At that point, you probably realize they possess a crab mentality. However, how you act toward that guy can affect your social battery. That person may end up getting on your nerves, causing you to get frustrated or angry at him. Essentially, you may end up wasting energy on him, which could’ve been used to invest in some productive work.
Constructive criticism and advice are huge factors that can really boost your personal growth because they’re opportunities to see how you can improve at whatever actions, or accomplishments you’ve undertaken.
But for criticism and advice to be acquired for your gain, you need the right people who are willing to see you succeed around you.
Having someone by your side who lies by offering false criticism or advice in hopes that it’ll make you fail is the key issue with the crab mentality on anyone who wants to grow and succeed in life.
Giving advice that can lead you to take three steps back from your one step forward is pretty demoralizing to anyone looking for support, guidance, or mentorship because that false criticism, feedback, or advice will only make you lose trust in the people you surround yourself with.
This is how easily a crab mentality can seriously tip your scales and make a difference in your personal growth and development, whether improving your mindset, career prospects, or productive potential!
Looking to the future is essential for personal growth. It’s important to have a solid idea that’ll lay the foundations for who you aspire to be, or what you want to achieve. It could be wealth, sharper well-being, family bonding, or productivity.
Whatever it is, thinking in the long-term is important in achieving it, otherwise you won’t have a motive to go off of for personal growth to even blossom!
This long-term thinking is easy to tarnish when a crab mentality crawls its way in to your life.
Being influenced by the antics of a crab-minded individual or group can lead you away from your long-term aspirations, only to look at short-term ones instead. This hinders personal growth because while short-term benefits may pose some rewards, they are more often than not temporary, unlike a long-term goal.
Take someone jealous of your hard-earned wealth. Instead of encouraging you to use your money wisely, and perhaps save it, they may encourage you to spend it all, perhaps because of the “enjoy it while it lasts” type of mentality – enjoying your money while you still have the time.
This can lead to short-term benefits which are only temporary, because spending all of that wealth, can quickly lead you to dry it all up completely!
This wouldn’t have been the case had you invested your wealth so you could build it and enjoy more of it in the long term.
Being influenced by scenarios like this demonstrated how much a crab mentality-stricken individual can play the devil’s advocate and seriously derail one’s personal growth!
Whether it’s thinking in the short-term, damaging relationships, or draining your social battery, the crab mentality can cause serious harm to you and the people around you!
Assess if you possess this crab-minded mentality by seeing if you behave in similar manners as we’ve stated above, and see if you may be a victim of the crab mentality.
It’s never too late to change your mentality for the better. Ultimately, it’s all about your personal growth and finding ways to prevent it from being hindered by obstacles.
