How To Respect Yourself

Self-respect is hard to come by. Almost no one has it as a kid, only a few find it in their teen years, and some have trouble finding it even as adults. It is an essential ingredient of real happiness, though, so we’ve put together a list of our top 10 recommendations for how to respect yourself.

10 Ways to Respect Yourself

Determine What Makes You Respect Yourself

First of all, understand that there is no one answer to how to respect yourself that fits everyone. Some people inherently value family most, and some people value work most, and others value personal well-being most.

You should look at your own values and determine how you can best respect yourself. Then go after that the best way you know-how.

That being said, the remaining items on this list are nearly universal ways to help you respect yourself.

Stand Up for Yourself

When you want something, assert yourself to the people who can give it to you! Far too many people are scared to stand up for what they want, and they miss out because of it. After the fact, they regret not making more of an effort to get their way.

In addition, you shouldn’t take flack from others if you don’t deserve it. Talk back! Be a force to be reckoned with. If you don’t, you’ll wish you had later. 

Don’t Settle

Never settle for less than you deserve. If you’re unhappy with the hand you’re dealt with, don’t be complacent! Use every resource you have to get to the point you think you should be at.

Once you’re happy with your position, you can look back on how you pulled yourself up by your own bootstraps and be proud of what you’ve accomplished.

Take Care of Yourself

Think of what it means to take care of a pet or a plant. It means getting them food, water, sunlight, exercise… all the things they need to thrive.

Now apply that same definition to how you treat yourself. Basically, you need to make sure you’re giving yourself access to everything you need to be happy and grow as a person. It also reminds you that you know how to respect yourself.

Treat Yourself

Every now and then, go out to a spa or a nice restaurant. Spend a few extra dollars on a new haircut. Take a weekend trip to a national park. Don’t get into the habit of doing it all the time, because that’s just overindulgent. But once in a while, it’s a good idea to remind yourself that you deserve the finer things in life.

Stay Healthy

Eat right. Get enough sleep. Exercise for at least 30 minutes every day. Your body is a machine, and you’ve got to keep it running at optimum performance.

You’ll notice the difference almost immediately. It will improve nearly every facet of your life, and you will be able to lie in bed at night feeling good about making such a huge positive change.

Don’t Badmouth Yourself

Never disparage yourself, even as a joke. Saying something like “I just didn’t want to do it because I’m lazy” is terrible for your psyche. Instead, try something like, “I was in a lazy mood.” Better yet, don’t mention laziness at all.

Don’t Be Untrue to Yourself for Others

You can’t be good at everything in life. You have your specialties, your unique talents. Focus on those things, because that is your niche. Let people who specialize in the things you’re not good at taking care of those areas.

That concept is called division of labor, and it’s how the world works. Accept that, and you’ll be free to focus on succeeding rather than trying in vain to complete tasks you’re not equipped to handle.

“Very narrow areas of expertise can be very productive. Develop your own profile. Develop your own niche.” — Leigh Steinberg

Stop Trying to Conform

In the same vein, you need to learn to enjoy being yourself, quirks, and all. Don’t adopt trends just because you think they will impress others.

Surround Yourself with Respectful People

Most people underestimate the effects of their choice of friends on their own self-respect. If you spend time with people who don’t respect themselves, the chances are that you won’t either.

It’s also important to be around people who respect you. When most of the people you are close to tell you that you’re not good enough, you tend to believe it yourself.

At the end of the day, you are as capable as you think you are. Because of that, knowing how to respect yourself is an essential part of happiness and success.

3 Simple Ways To Improve Your Life

Changed lives don’t just happen by thinking about them or believing they’re possible. Find out how self-improvement can change lives for the better and how you can do it in this article.

Self-Improvement: Changing Your Life Starts With Changing Yourself

Living Your Best Life Starts With Self-Improvement

If you want to achieve success and live life to the fullest, you’ll need to make changes in your life. To be able to do that, you’ll need the ability to make those changes happen and handle them well.

And, to be able to do those things, you’ll need to upgrade the current version of you right now. You’ll need to do new and different things if you want new and different results in your life.

The key to these is self-improvement.

How Your Life Can Change Through Self-Improvement

1. Self-Improvement Can Open the Doors for New New Opportunities

Growing in skills, knowledge, experiences, wisdom, and as a person can open new doors of opportunities for better lives. However, many of these opportunities aren’t patient enough for those who are slow to act upon them.

2. It Can Also Boost Self-Esteem

The starting point for pursuing your dreams in life is self-confidence. Why?

If you don’t believe in yourself, no one will. It’s all on you.

When you have healthy self-esteem, you won’t be afraid to grab the opportunities that come your way. You also won’t be afraid to create your own opportunities.

Some of the most powerful ways to boost one’s self-confidence are to increase one’s skills, knowledge, and wisdom, and work towards breaking bad habits.

All of these, of course, fall under the umbrella of self-improvement or self-help. It might take you out of your comfort zone, but it’ll be worth it.

3. Lets You Discover a New and Improved You

The quality of our lives is directly related to who we are as a person. Through self-improvement, we become better or upgraded versions of ourselves.

Even if the improvements are just small, say only 1%, those small improvements can compound over time and result in huge self-improvements and ultimately, to a higher quality of life. The road to success and happiness starts with your 1%.

The 10 Most Inspirational Short Stories I’ve Read

       The 10 Best Inspirational Short Stories

                                   (Part 5)

2. Puppies for Sale (Understanding)

A shop owner placed a sign above his door that said: “Puppies For Sale.”

Signs like this always have a way of attracting young children, and to no surprise, a boy saw the sign and approached the owner; 

 

“How much are you going to sell the puppies for?” he asked.

 

The store owner replied, “Anywhere from $30 to $50.”

The little boy pulled out some change from his pocket. “I have $2.37,” he said. “Can I please look at them?”

The shop owner smiled and whistled. Out of the kennel came Lady, who ran down the aisle of his shop followed by five teeny, tiny balls of fur.

One puppy was lagging considerably behind. Immediately the little boy singled out the lagging, limping puppy and said, “What’s wrong with that little dog?”

The shop owner explained that the veterinarian had examined the little puppy and had discovered it didn’t have a hip socket. It would always limp. It would always be lame.

The little boy became excited. “That is the puppy that I want to buy.”

The shop owner said, “No, you don’t want to buy that little dog. If you really want him, I’ll just give him to you.”

The little boy got quite upset. He looked straight into the store owner’s eyes, pointing his finger, and said;

 

“I don’t want you to give him to me. That little dog is worth every bit as much as all the other dogs and I’ll pay full price. In fact, I’ll give you $2.37 now, and 50 cents a month until I have him paid for.”

 

The shop owner countered, “You really don’t want to buy this little dog. He is never going to be able to run and jump and play with you like the other puppies.”

To his surprise, the little boy reached down and rolled up his pant leg to reveal a badly twisted, crippled left leg supported by a big metal brace. He looked up at the shop owner and softly replied, “Well, I don’t run so well myself, and the little puppy will need someone who understands!”

1. Box Full of Kisses (Love)

Some time ago, a man punished his 3-year-old daughter for wasting a roll of gold wrapping paper. Money was tight and he became infuriated when the child tried to decorate a box to put under the Christmas tree.

Nevertheless, the little girl brought the gift to her father the next morning and said, “This is for you, Daddy.”

The man became embarrassed by his overreaction earlier, but his rage continue when he saw that the box was empty. He yelled at her; “Don’t you know, when you give someone a present, there is supposed to be something inside?”

The little girl looked up at him with tears in her eyes and cried;

 

“Oh, Daddy, it’s not empty at all. I blew kisses into the box. They’re all for you, Daddy.”

 

The father was crushed. He put his arms around his little girl, and he begged for her forgiveness.

Only a short time later, an accident took the life of the child.

Her father kept the gold box by his bed for many years and, whenever he was discouraged, he would take out an imaginary kiss and remember the love of the child who had put it there.

Moral of the story:

Love is the most precious gift in the world.

 

Summary of the 10 Best Inspirational Stories

Here’s a quick summary of the 10 best short inspirational stories:

1. Box Full of Kisses (Love)
2. Puppies for Sale (Understanding)
3. The Blind Girl (Change)
4. Control Your Temper (Anger)
5. The Butterfly (Struggles)
6. The Obstacle in Our Path (Opportunity)
7. A Pound of Butter (Honesty)
8. The Group of Frogs (Encouragement)
9. Thinking Out of the Box (Creative Thinking)
10. The Elephant Rope (Belief)

Thanks for reading these inspirational short stories. Some of them left me speechless for few minute and it really does make us think.

Which are your favorite inspirational short stories? Leave a comment below.

The 10 Most Inspirational Short Stories I’ve Read

       The 10 Best Inspirational Short Stories

                                 (Part 4)

     

4. Control Your Temper (Anger)

There once was a little boy who had a very bad temper. His father decided to hand him a bag of nails and said that every time the boy lost his temper, he had to hammer a nail into the fence.

On the first day, the boy hammered 37 nails into that fence.

The boy gradually began to control his temper over the next few weeks, and the number of nails he was hammering into the fence slowly decreased.

He discovered it was easier to control his temper than to hammer those nails into the fence.

Finally, the day came when the boy didn’t lose his temper at all. He told his father the news and the father suggested that the boy should now pull out a nail every day he kept his temper under control.

The days passed and the young boy was finally able to tell his father that all the nails were gone. The father took his son by the hand and led him to the fence.

“you have done well, my son, but look at the holes in the fence. The fence will never be the same. When you say things in anger, they leave a scar just like this one. You can put a knife in a man and draw it out. It won’t matter how many times you say I’m sorry, the wound is still there.”

 

Moral of the story:

Control your anger, and don’t say things to people in the heat of the moment, that you may later regret. Some things in life, you are unable to take back.

3. The Blind Girl (Change)

There was a blind girl who hated herself purely for the fact she was blind. The only person she didn’t hate was her loving boyfriend, as he was always there for her. She said that if she could only see the world, she would marry him.

One day, someone donated a pair of eyes to her – now she could see everything, including her boyfriend. Her boyfriend asked her, “now that you can see the world, will you marry me?”

The girl was shocked when she saw that her boyfriend was blind too, and refused to marry him. Her boyfriend walked away in tears, and later wrote a letter to her saying:

 

“Just take care of my eyes dear.”

 

Moral of the story:

When our circumstances change, so does our mind. Some people may not be able to see the way things were before, and might not be able to appreciate them. There are many things to take away from this story, not just one.

If like this stories please leave a comment.

The 10 Most Inspirational Short Stories I’ve Read

       The 10 Best Inspirational Short Stories

                                 (Part 3)

6. The Obstacle In Our Path (Opportunity)

In ancient times, a King had a boulder placed on a roadway. He then hid himself and watched to see if anyone would move the boulder out of the way. Some of the king’s wealthiest merchants and courtiers came by and simply walked around it.

Many people loudly blamed the King for not keeping the roads clear, but none of them did anything about getting the stone out of the way.

A peasant then came along carrying a load of vegetables. Upon approaching the boulder, the peasant laid down his burden and tried to push the stone out of the road. After much pushing and straining, he finally succeeded.

After the peasant went back to pick up his vegetables, he noticed a purse lying in the road where the boulder had been.

The purse contained many gold coins and a note from the King explaining that the gold was for the person who removed the boulder from the roadway.

Moral of the story:

Every obstacle we come across in life gives us an opportunity to improve our circumstances, and whilst the lazy complain, the others are creating opportunities through their kind hearts, generosity, and willingness to get things done.

5. The Butterfly (Struggles)

A man found a cocoon of a butterfly.

One day a small opening appeared. He sat and watched the butterfly for several hours as it struggled to force its body through that little hole.

Until it suddenly stopped making any progress and looked like it was stuck.

So the man decided to help the butterfly. He took a pair of scissors and snipped off the remaining bit of the cocoon. The butterfly then emerged easily, although it had a swollen body and small, shriveled wings.

The man didn’t think anything of it and sat there waiting for the wings to enlarge to support the butterfly. But that didn’t happen. The butterfly spent the rest of its life unable to fly, crawling around with tiny wings and a swollen body.

Despite the kind heart of the man, he didn’t understand that the restricting cocoon and the struggle needed by the butterfly to get itself through the small opening; were God’s way of forcing fluid from the body of the butterfly into its wings. To prepare itself for flying once it was out of the cocoon.

Moral of the story:

Our struggles in life develop our strengths. Without struggles, we never grow and never get stronger, so it’s important for us to tackle challenges on our own, and not be relying on help from others.

If like this stories please leave a comment.