Respect is a two-way street. We must both give and receive it in order to build meaningful relationships and foster a healthy community. Learning how to respect yourself by holding yourself to your own personal standards can help you to gain the respect of others around you.
Understand Your Values
Before you can hold yourself to any standard, it’s important to first understand what your values are. Perhaps there are certain expectations that you have for others that you should also have for yourself. Maybe there are certain goals or milestones that when accomplished will give you the feeling of accomplishment that you seek. When you know your values, it’s easier to create a set of benchmarks for yourself that will help propel you forward in the right direction.
Set Personal Standards
Once you know your values, start setting personal standards based on them. These standards should be specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and timely (SMART). For example, if one of your values is integrity, then perhaps one of your standards could be not taking shortcuts even when no one is watching or when it would be easier than doing something the right way. Conversely, if efficiency is important to you then maybe strive to complete tasks within a certain timeline each day or week. Whatever they may be ensure that these standards align with your overall goals and reflect what matters most to you so that they are easy for you to stick with over time.
Hold Yourself Accountable
Now comes the hard part – holding yourself accountable for meeting those standards! This might mean tracking and monitoring progress towards achieving them or even creating a system of rewards and consequences such as celebrating successes or taking breaks when needed after working hard at meeting them each day. However, whatever accountability systems work best for YOU make sure that each step takes into account YOUR individual needs and desires because ultimately this process isn’t about getting others’ approval but rather about developing an internal sense of worthiness and pride in who we are as individuals which will naturally lead us towards gaining more respect from those around us.
Conclusion
Respect doesn’t come easy; it’s earned through hard work and dedication – both externally from those around us as well as internally from ourselves by holding ourselves up against our own personal standards. By understanding our own core values and setting SMART goals accordingly we can begin the process of cultivating respect within our lives in order to build meaningful relationships with those around us while achieving our goals along the way! So take some time today to think about what matters most in life and start figuring out how best YOU can honour those wants and; needs through setting self-imposed personal standards today.