How to Get More Respect

Want to know how to get more respect?

Want respect from the people you care about, as well as those you work with and share your life with? Take a lesson from the Girl Scouts. I will do my best to be honest and fair, friendly and helpful, considerate and caring, courageous and strong, and responsible for what I say and do, and to respect myself and others…

Learning to live with integrity

What does it mean to live with integrity? Get clear on your values. Spend some time deciding what is important to you in life. This can be a broad category, so you may want to make a list if you have never thought about it before. Maybe things that you value in your life include helping others, taking care of animals, telling the truth, being there for a friend, doing your best, and considering others.

Define your values

Write down ways that you can act and behave in support of your values. If a value of yours is about being kind to animals, it could be having pets; feeding, petting, spending quality time with, walking, and cleaning up after your pets every day.

Make your list

Or maybe one of your values is staying organized so that you can be more effective in your life. Goals that would support this effort include setting a weekly cleaning schedule for your home, routinely disinfecting, setting up a place for everything, and keeping everything in its place.

If another value you’ve set is placing truth above all else, then seek ways to live according to that principle. Do your share of ruminating on how the day’s events went, and where there may have been opportunities to seek and find the truth. Search for ways to speak the truth to others to the best of your ability.

Another value of yours could be prioritizing spending family time together. For your list of activities and ways that you can put this into action, you could remind yourself to listen to family members and consider their points of view. Hear their stories without interrupting. Offer sympathy for their feelings. You can also set up opportunities to spend quality time together. This could be something as simple as having a movie and popcorn night once a week or everyone heading to the park on Saturday afternoons for some exercise and fresh air.

How does living with integrity increase other people’s respect for you as a person? People tend to naturally respect those who live according to a set of personal principles and can be relied on to do what they say they’re going to do.

How does this command respect? It’s because you become known as a trustworthy person who can be counted on to come through for others. In society, this is a valuable thing, and people of high-value command respect.

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