What exactly is respect? It’s the sense of worth or personal value that you attach to someone.
Respect is an overall evaluation you give someone based on many factors, what that person is doing with their life, how they treat you and others, whether they are honest or not and if they seem to consistently do good things, large or small, for other people.
In short, respect is a positive view that you form of how someone is living their life. On the other hand, self-respect is your view of how you’re living your life.
It starts with self-respect. Respecting yourself means giving and defining your own worth and value as a human being.
Think about this: if you do not respect yourself, it will be more difficult for you to respect anyone else. So it all begins with self-respect. You must be honest with yourself and with others.
A vital key to self-respect is knowledge. In order to be your best, you must feel your best. Financial responsibility is a cornerstone to independence. Part of learning self-respect involves respecting the beliefs of others.
Knowing and exercising good manners and proper conduct will make you feel good about yourself, and, in return, others will respect you for your good manners and proper conduct.
Part of being a respected person involves taking responsibility for your own actions. Accepting responsibility involves formally apologising for wrongdoing and striving to make amends.
We must learn to emulate those who are good influences and ignore those who are bad influences. Each goal you set and attain, you will gain strength to challenge yourself a little more; the more goals you attain, and the more your self-respect will grow.
You should address each of these ideals within your own life in order to carry a well-rounded respect for yourself. If you haven’t done so already, start working on each and every one of them. Keep a journal to track your progress.
And, as always, if you need help with any of them, turn to a valued listener for help. Just like with yourself, when you demonstrate respect for others, you give value to their being and ideals.
In addition, you’ll make someone feel good by granting them respect, provided, of course, that it’s something that they deserve. One of the best ways to show respect for someone is to truly listen to another’s point of view.
READ THIS: #FreshTake: Raised to show respect?
Obviously, we’ll not always agree with one another on every topic and you should never adopt a point of view with which you do not agree, but we should allow each other to have and express our own views – regardless of whether we agree with them or not.
“Keep this in mind: you owe everyone a basic level of respect for being a fellow human being, but your level of respect for others will vary from person to person.
Just like your self-respect will grow as you master the ideals discussed above, your level of respect for others will vary depending upon your view of them and their own self-respect.
There’s nothing wrong with affording some people greater respect than others. You should be kind and polite to everyone – no question about that.
But for obvious reasons, some of us simply deserve more respect than others. For example, I think we would all agree that a consistently honest person deserves more respect than a habitual liar.
So, always be kind, polite and afford a basic level of respect for your fellow man and ‘you will never walk alone’.
Submitted by Dharam Sewraj
