I am a huge people-pleaser. It's taken some time for me to accept it and say it out loud, but it's true. There is truly nothing I hate more in life than having to do something that might hurt someone or make them upset. Even just the vague concept of hurting someone else bothers me so much that I would go to pretty much any length to avoid doing so. Needless to say, this little issue of mine made dating very difficult. In particular, figuring out how to reject someone nicely has been my Mount Everest. I mean, isn’t the concept of rejecting someone who was genuinely interested in you inherently going to be hurtful? That’s how I felt when I was single. I felt that there was no real nice way to reject someone, so I’d go to great lengths to come up with elaborate lies and ego-boosting explanations all to hopefully ease the blow. But it turns out there’s another way.

Unfortunately, when I was single, I never really had anyone to teach me how to let someone down kindly. Luckily, if you're a single person struggling with this, I've got some very helpful tips to share. In a recent Reddit AskWomen thread, ladies shared their go-to methods for rejecting people politely — and they're incredible.

"Thanks, I'm flattered but not interested/available. " Keep it super simple.

---Amgov

You don't own them an explanation, just tell them you're not interested. You don't have to get into it any more than that. It's not harsh, it's just direct. Rejection sucks no matter how much you sugar coated, so you may as well be clear. "No thank you, I'm not interested."

---Jewelrider