I strongly believe that this is the most important lesson that was not taught when I was at school.
I understand that in some schools, nowadays a few minutes are given over to considering respect. But, is a few minutes, or even an hour or two, enough?
Every minute given to this subject will build connexion, raise self esteem, reduce stress, reduce bullying, reduce both blue collar and white collar crime, and therefore make our world a much nicer place to live!
In my view, respect in all its many forms should be at least 50% of any lower or middle school curriculum
We spend our entire life communicating with people, and without respect the communication ends up distorted or even counter productive
And, who do we have most communication with? And therefore offering the opportunity to cause the most damage?
Yup! Ourselves!!
Many of us are our own worst enemies. We judge ourselves, or others in the worst light possible, rather than respecting ourself and others for who we are.
It is a fact that:
Based on their life experiences to date EVERYONE is ALWAYS doing their best!! And that includes us!
This one, very powerful sentence, can take a while to absorb and to come to terms with, so I will leave it there for now.
Do you have an immediate reaction to the above? Remember to read part:
“Based on their life experiences to date”
If your reaction is to strongly disagree, review the words fully against specific examples you may have
Do you feel there may be at least some truth in the sentence?
To explore the sentence more, go to the section on respect for others