Do you truly respect yourself?

One of the most important questions you could ever ask yourself in any situation is, ‘Who do you want to be?’

Life is quickly defined or tainted by who we think others deserve us to be.

We start out believing, often with good reason, that we need to be a certain way so that we don’t enable or encourage others to treat us badly, or to take us for granted.

That’s when we lose ourselves to the assumptions of what we think others think of us, and along with it we lose our self-respect.

Self-respect must be measured in the same way as what we use to determine if we are respected by others.

If someone treats us in a way that lacks consideration for who we are, if they break their promises to us, if they lie or avoid accountability for what they do to us, or how they affect us, we feel disrespected by them.

Why then do we not feel as if we’re disrespecting ourselves when we treat ourselves in similar or worse ways?

It’s easy to blame others for our reaction of for not following through on commitments that we make to ourselves.

But we need to realise that when we do that, we’re effectively giving up who we are for how we need them to treat us.

That’s what happens when we assume that how others treat us is a reflection of who we are, rather than it being a reflection of what they’re dealing with within themselves.

That’s how life gets complicated, and withholding who we are begins to appear as a needed defence against being treated badly.

Before you go demanding respect from others, consider what it means for your self-respect if you believe that demanding respect is an effective way to be respected.

When you demand respect, you only receive good manners or compliance. Not respect.

Because the one who is disrespectful is only giving what they have.

Have you got enough self-respect to treat others with respect regardless of whether they deserve it, or have you traded your self-respect for anger and self-loathing without realising it?

#selfworth #selfawareness #mentalhealth #mentalhealthawareness #lifecoaching #zaidismail #theegosystem #ownyourlife #victimmindset #mindfulness