Don’t be naive

As a whole, being naive leaves you extremely vulnerable to malicious people with bad intentions.

That’s why being overprotective and fending your loved ones from all potential threats will have a negative effect in the long run, since they won’t learn anything.

The best thing you can do to protect other people over time is to make them stronger and more competent. And the only way to do this is to allow them to learn from new experiences. By allowing them to make mistakes, preferably plenty, and to learn from these failures.

As a result, people will become experienced, capable, and adept at recognizing dangerous situations and bad people.

Figure out why people have bad intentions

The key to figuring out if people have bad intentions is understanding why there are malicious people out there and why they have dubious purposes.

And to figure that out, there must be some awful, some evil in you as well. How can you understand those feelings and how someone else thinks if you haven’t experienced them yourself?

There’s a quote that says, “Know yourself, know your enemy.” It means that if you understand yourself fully, both the good and bad in you, then you can also perfectly interpret all other people since this applies to them as well.

Analyze your surroundings

Analyze the situation you are currently residing in. Are people staring you down? Are you in a dimly lit alley? Are the people around you trying to take advantage of you?

These are all examples of some good questions that you’ll need to ask yourself to figure out if you are in a potentially dangerous or malicious situation or not.

A situation doesn’t always have to be physically dangerous, some can be dangerous for your mental health as well. Because some malicious people will try to take advantage of you by emotionally manipulating you or by bullying you, for example.

The key to keeping these dangerous situations from occurring and escalating is to prevent them in the first place. So figuring out when and where dangerous situations could happen can aid us in keeping you safe.

Avoid the situation if possible

Once you’ve analyzed what situations could lead to dangerous encounters, or when you realize that you’re currently in a hazardous position, then you should aim to get yourself out as quickly and safely as humanly possible. Avoid escalating the ordeal.

Are you walking in a dimly lit area and notice people lurking in the shadows? Run and yell out for help. Do you notice people misusing your trust for their gain? Cut them out of your life. Are people staring you down on the bus, and you think it’s going to go south? Stop the bus and get out of a busy place.

Avoiding unsafe experiences is a win. And no matter how good you are at physically and verbally defending yourself, it often comes at the risk of physically injuring yourself. And you never know when someone is going to draw a gun or knife on you, either. So don’t be the tough guy and instead attempt to prevent the situation from escalating.

Learn to defend yourself verbally and physically

Learning how to defend yourself verbally and physically should be a given. No matter how safe life is now in comparison with history, it will never be completely safe.

Bad people who misuse other people for their own personal gain and to satisfy their needs and desires will always exist. There are those who emotionally abuse people, rob, rape, and many more despicable things.

That’s why you should learn to defend yourself with words as your first line of defense, and you should learn how to fight as your last resort.

Of course, preventing the situation from escalating should be your primary concern in the first place. But if push comes to shove, then you should know how to defend yourself in whatever form is needed.

Think of the famous quote, “It’s better to be a warrior in the garden than a gardener in a war.” Which means honing your skills and preparing yourself in peaceful times to defend yourself if the need ever arises.

Distance yourself

Sometimes, cutting people completely out of your life, no matter how much you want to, is not possible. It can be the case that there are annoying people in your family, at work, or perhaps in your recreational circle.

But what you can do to protect yourself from people with bad intentions is distancing yourself from them as far as possible. You don’t have to call them or text them. Heck, you don’t even have to tell them something about your personal life if you don’t want to.

Keeping your distance will help to reduce mental stress and will help to keep those with bad intentions as far away from you as possible.

Cut them out of your life

If the chance arises, then it’s best to cut toxic people or those with dubious, malicious intents out of your life completely.

Because why should you put up with people who don’t want the best for you? Why should you live your short life accompanied by those who are trying to misuse you?

In my opinion, you shouldn’t. And if certain people cause you more stress than personal joy, then it seems kind of obvious to me that they are not meant to be in your life.

Confront them

Confronting people with malicious intentions should only be done as a last resort. Thus, it should only be used as a final measure. Because it means that the possibility of the situation getting out of hand is quite high.

Not only that, but what makes you think that malicious people are keen on changing their behavior in the first place? I’m not saying that it isn’t possible, but you should be mindful of the fact that they have no intention of changing their actions for the better.

But, it is possible that confronting them shows them that you aren’t someone who backs down easily or to be trifled with. This can cause them to respect you enough to leave you alone. But this is the best possible outcome, and far worse outcomes can also be the case.