Respecting Others

Respecting Others

What is respect?

Respect means to accept others for who they are. You have to accept their different opinions, their different habits, their different way of thinking. For example, you and your partner Mike are discussing ways to grow your business. You want to do it with your way, and Mike wants to do it with his way. Even if you disagree with his perspective, you have to show respect for his opinion and try to find common ground. If you mock him, if you laugh at him, or if you don’t let him finish what he has to say, you will show a lack of respect for him and his ideas. So, how can we show respect to others?

Before we start, I’d like to make clear that respect starts within us, but it’s not about us. It’s about others. As Hussein Nishah has said: “Treat people the way you want to be treated. Talk to people the way you want to be talked to. Respect is earned, not given.” Always remember that:

• You don’t have to agree with someone to show respect to him.

• You don’t have to change your principles (of respect) if someone doesn’t respect you.

For instance, “He didn’t respect me, so I won’t respect him too.” NO! Respect starts from us, from our values, from our self-discipline, and our self-love.

Let’s go back to how we can show respect to others.

1) Respect yourself

“Respect yourself and others will respect you”

– Confucius

If we don’t respect ourselves, then we can’t respect others. It’s true. Can you teach someone something you don’t know? The answer is no. Then, you can’t show respect to others if you haven’t respected yourself first. Ways to respect yourself:

• Eat healthy, exercise, sleep well, don’t stress yourself too much,
• Meditate, read books, socialize, make friends, enjoy some time with your family, etc.

Take responsibility for your life, for your actions, for the things that you set aside. Start achieving your goals that you’ve set. Go that trip you’ve always wanted, fix your sleep schedule, build your confidence, do not let others dictate your life, develop the skill set you need to have a great career.

There are no excuses. Do not limit yourself with excuses like “I don’t have time.” Everyone has the same 24hours/day. If you really want something, go get it. Try, grind, hustle, and don’t give up. Every successful person had millions of excuses to not do it, but they didn’t. They kept pushing for what they wanted to achieve, and they made it.

2) Listen

When you pay attention to what the other person has to say, without interrupting them, it means that you respect them. Even if you don’t agree with his/her perspective you have to let them complete what they say, without judging them.

3) Don’t judge

No one likes feeling judged. When you judge someone for something they did or they said, without knowing why “that happened”, you show that you don’t respect them. Remember that judging someone doesn’t define who they are; it defines who you are. You can take a minute to put yourself into their shoes and think about why that might have happened.

“If you light a lamp for someone else, it will also brighten your path.“

-Buddha

4) Serve

Everyone in this world has a mission, and that’s to serve others. We can all help each other, either by helping an elder person with the shopping bags, or by counseling people who need help, or by training others to find their mission and their “calling”. So, when you serve others, not only you’re developing yourself, you’re feeling fulfilled and you’re making the world a little bit better, but it also shows that you care. And care shows respect.

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