Self Respect

I've been thinking about self respect this morning.

In my opinion there is way too much emphasis on self esteem these days.

Self esteem ought to be a natural out growth of self respect instead of a cheap substitute for it.

Self respect is like a fortress you build around your inner self, one block at a time! That fortress gives you strength and protection when the world throws challenges your way!

The building blocks of your fortress come from proving to yourself that you are a person worthy of your own respect!

That only comes from proving to yourself that you can make wise choices and take responsible action.

 For instance, there's no way that you can respect yourself for choosing to do something that you know is wrong. On the other hand, standing up and defending what is right and good even when it's unpopular takes strength and adds blocks to your fortress quickly!

Your fortress doesn't have to be perfect to have value to you. All of us have weak spots in our character, they are just there to show us what we need to work on more!

Even if your fortress is a shambles today, you can start rebuilding it right now by starting to make one good decision at a time! Self respect comes from hundreds of little good decisions and acts of character and self discipline all added together!

Have you ever had a hole blown in your fortress wall? I have!

What do you do? Start building again and focus on making your self respect even stronger by fixing the problems that created the original weakness.

Think of the power that comes from being able to say, "I overcame a major obstacle in my life!"

So do something that adds value to the world today!

Go make it an awesome day!


Self respect is far more valuable than self esteem! Self esteem can be artificial. Self respect comes from building a life around doing right and good things. Don't feel much respect for yourself? Start today! Go do something good, preferably for someone else and lay the first block in your fortress of self respect.

Figure out how to put another block in that wall every day. You will find that other people can't take your self respect from you if you have built it on the right principles. That's far more valuable than the percieved picture of yourself that is self esteem! This is real!