Self-respect makes certain invitations less tempting.

Some offers only work on a person who is unsure of their own worth. The arrangement that requires you to accept less, the relationship that runs on your availability, the deal that treats your time as free. When you hold yourself in decent regard, those invitations simply do not land the same way, because the part of you they were addressed to is no longer answering.

If you keep receiving the same kind of unfair proposal, look at what in you keeps saying yes rather than at who keeps asking. Raising your own baseline changes the reception more reliably than trying to change the people offering. Much of what once tempted you will just stop feeling like an option.