During a recent trip to Chicago, I was able to catch up with a friend that I met over 30 years ago. She swung by a coffee shop (check out Stan’s, it’s amazing) to meet my family then we spent some time catching up. As our conversation wound itself around to different topics she said something that stopped me in my tracks. We were talking about interpersonal relationships and our childhood families. She said the following
“How can you be kind to other people if you can’t be kind to yourself?”
She said it quickly but I stopped the conversation to sit with that for a minute. It’s an extremely powerful concept. So simple and right in front of us.
You have to be kind to yourself before you can have any capacity to extend that to others. I will repeat that..
You have to be kind to yourself before you can have any capacity to extend that to others.
How we treat ourselves is practice for how we treat others. It starts with you. It doesn't stop at being kind. You can swap out “kind” for anything … inspire, help, have patience, motivate, be truthful etc. How can you inspire, help, motivate others if you can't do that for yourself.
Figure out what you want to be for others and be that for yourself first.
It always starts with you. The Ball is in your court.
Teach / Connect / Grow
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