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 Self-respect
 is the most important respect you can earn.
By Thom Rutledge
To earn your own respect, you must live responsibly. To live
responsibly,
you must identify and clarify your personal value system, and act on a
daily basis in accordance with that value system. You will respect
yourself
to the degree that you do not violate your own value system.
None of us will live in perfect harmony with our personal value
systems,
not as long as we are human anyway. If you make such perfection a goal,
you
will be wasting valuable energy that could be put to much better use.
Use
that energy instead to remain aware of what you value, aware of the
choices
you make as you walk through your daily life, and aware of the degree
of
congruence between these two.
When you notice that your "behavioral
values"
are drifting away from your "expressed values," wake yourself up, and
return the two to closer alignment.
Just as in a breath-counting meditation, when you lose count, and
gently
return your undisciplined mind back to "one," it is wise to expect that
your behavioral choices will tend to be less disciplined than your
expressed personal value system.
Condemning yourself for this normal
human
trait will always be a waste of your time.
This is life's meditation, and the point of the meditation is to
practice
being awake so that you will be living your life by decision rather
than by default.
Remember: practice makes practice. Perfection will not be
attained. Make it your goal to continue this daily practice until you
have
no breath to count.
Visit Thom's web site: www.webpowers.com/thomrutledge
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