How do you move on when someone does not like you?

For a while, notice the exchanges themselves. Do they avoid everyone when they are busy? Is the difficulty mostly about a particular shared task? Has their manner changed since something happened? These questions keep observation close to what you can actually see.

In When you know that a person doesn’t like you, Innocent Mwatsikesimbe considers what continued interaction might reveal, including a wrong of one’s own that went unnoticed. He also gives the inquiry an end: when nothing useful can be done to change the person’s dislike, accept it and move on.

Suppose you remember interrupting this gardener while they explained a planting idea. You dismissed it before hearing the reason, and the group moved on. You had thought only about finishing the discussion. They may have experienced the exchange differently.

You can address your conduct without demanding confirmation of the motive you suspect. “I realised I cut you off when you were explaining that idea. I’m sorry. I’d like to hear what you were trying to suggest.”

Perhaps they explain, and the next conversation is easier. Perhaps they accept the apology and remain distant. Either way, the apology has done something you had reason to do.

The answer could also be that you can identify no wrong to repair. One strained interaction does not require you to keep searching your past until you find a reason to condemn yourself. If a practical issue affects the shared work, ask about that issue plainly. If there is no such issue, the relationship may simply remain limited.

Moving on means letting that limit become part of the arrangement. You can agree on watering, return borrowed tools and make room for each other’s work without becoming friends. You can also spend your free time with people whose company you enjoy instead of repeatedly seeking a warmer response here.

There is a difference between noticing behaviour and keeping a private investigation open forever. Once further observation supplies no useful information, it may mostly give the person’s possible opinion more of your attention. You need not settle exactly why they feel as they do before leaving the matter alone.

If they obstruct your work or mistreat you, those actions still deserve a response. Accepting that someone may dislike you does not require accepting whatever they do. But an ordinary cool greeting can remain a cool greeting. It need not become the question you spend the rest of the afternoon trying to answer.