I would consider myself to have been a people-pleaser my whole life. It has become a part of my identity. I feel like I am responsible for other people’s feelings for some reason, and I do whatever I can to lift people up. Now, this may not seem like a problem on the surface, but I think I overdo it with this niceness. I am 22M and feel like there are times when I seem too nice and it might not seem genuine. This keeps me from having meaningful connections because I feel like people think that they can’t trust the “nice guy”. I want to change, but I don’t know how. I guess I should start by being assertive, but then the people who know me would automatically think I am being mean since this is not how I normally act. All I want is to be seen as a normal person and not taken advantage of. What should I do?