Self-respect… there could be many interpretations, but it could be narrowed down to the reverse of “treat others how you want to be treated.” “Treat yourself how you want people to treat you.” It could be argued that they mean the same thing; if you want to be treated right, show you care about yourself and others. When you show you don’t care about yourself through how you dress and how you hold yourself or by constantly trying to get attention, then people see that as a way to advantage of you.
Nowadays our generation is extremely concerned with pleasing others, so self-respect is a minor concept. That is what is facing our generation, pleasing others to the point where we get taken advantage of, losing who we really are. If you gain this self-respect, people see something that’s rare nowadays: you actually care about yourself. Others can tell you care where you are going in life and you display this attitude in how you hold yourself. You don’t let people influence you on how the “popular way to live is,” but you stick to your own unique lifestyle. You want success in your life on your terms, not the success of pleasing others today.
There may be the confusion concerning the thought of “ pleasing yourself,” which is totally different. That could be translated into filling in an empty space with bad habits. You please yourself by pleasing others, which is not self-respect. That “empty space” could appear from not receiving the love and respect you deserve, so you force it from other people and things. When you put yourself out there because of “an empty space” that you want to be filled, it feels relieving So you keep doing it, no matter if it’s having a negative effect on your life. Pleasing yourself in a negative way is pleasing a desire, not pleasing or respecting you. When you actually please yourself you don’t feel the need to keep going back to a desire.
How you present yourself really shows the level how respect you have for yourself physically and character-wise. In the circumstance of receiving acceptance and love from others, you dress seductively or in something that could attract someone, along with acting the way of attention seeking. When you dress like this you’re dishonoring what a beautiful creation you are and attracting bad attention that is disrespectful to you. And when you act the way of what others want to see, your not showing your true self. You’re also showing whom your forcing yourself to be.
There is an exception from someone with so much more importance, constantly filling that empty space, and allowing you to learn to respect yourself… God. He sees your heart and knows what you’re struggling with, when you lean on him you feel relieved and accepted. He will always be on your side when you acknowledge Him. When you know this in your heart, you no longer feel the need to please others or yourself; these are the roots of self-disrespect. You learn to respect yourself and hold yourself in the manner of how God who have you do.
True self- respect is hard to find in this generation, but it’s important to have the respect for yourself. You do have to deal with yourself for the rest of your life, don’t live it for a desire. Respecting yourself shows others simply that you value your true self more than the approval of others.
