Self-Respect is an empowering emotion.

 "The Search for Self-Respect" was written by Dr. Maxwell Maltz (11973), famous for his theory and books about Psycho-Cybernetics, this book is about using your mind to construct self-respect because you alone have the power of self-acceptance or self-rejection. He goes so far as to suggest that alcoholism, divorce and inner turmoil are rooted in a lack of genuine self-respect.

Self-respect is something that, initially, you can manufacture inside yourself by choosing

self-acceptance and maintaining the certainty that you are a worthwhile, positive person.  Judge yourself charitably, come to grips with your own true personality,appreciate yourself with friendship, and reach out to others not with animosity or prejudice but with the same hand of friendship and with constructive intentions.

With self-respect, you reach out toward your full potential as a human, satisfied that you are being a positive, productive person.  On the other hand, living without self-respect, you are a criminal in hiding, living in a prison built around yourself, and even if the prison is comfortable and luxurious, it is still a prison.

 There is no more accurate measure of an individual's value than his own degree of self-respect. In your way, with your special problems, with your unique assets and liabilities - give yourself  self-respect in your mind where good things start. Positive thinking and positive imagining followed by goal directed actions will create the sense of personal worth all men seek.

People today live in a complicated, changing and uncertain world, and seek an identity they can be proud of and that gives them a sense of success and self-respect for who they are and how they live.  Self-respect, success and dignity are sweet feelings that are hard to come by, therefore, you must will to reach them; feel determined to have them. You must feel enthusiasm for your goals, such as, New Year's Resolutions to create more heart health by losing weight and exercising.  The worthwhile new physical changes you create in yourself through hard work and determination can give you a boost to your self-respect and start off your year with a renewed sense of purpose.  Reach out to anything (within moral and ethical guidelines) that will give you a greater sense of personal worth.  Positive thinking and positive imagining guide your goal directed actions to achieve your personal vision of a positive, worthwhile life.

Your next move is always forward, out of inertia into determination and enthusiasm for some worthwhile goal!

Napoleon Hill says we have the ability to direct our minds to create our Vision and he offers this prayer of thankfulness:

Divine Providence, I ask not for more riches but for more wisdom with which to accept and use wisely the riches I was given at birth in the form of the power to control and direct my mind to ends of my own choice.

If I can conceive and believe I can achieve position, circumstance or things I desire.

Method:

1. write a clear description of your one major desire in life that you are willing to accept as your idea of success, a circumstance or thing you most desire.  Remember that the only limitations are those you set in your own mind or allow others to set for you.

2. Write a clear precise statement of what you intend to give in return for that which you desire from life.  Begin giving.

3. Memorize both statements and begin repeating them a dozen times a day.

4. Whatever your mind feeds upon, your mind attracts to you.

5. You need definiteness of purpose in the form of a clear picture of what you want from life.

The riches you enjoy if you take procession of your own mind and direct it to ends of your own choice include:

Sound health

Peace of Mind

A labor of love of your choosing

Freedom from fear and worry

A positive mental attitude

Material riches of your choice in the quantity you desire.

The penalties if you do not take procession of your mind are:

Ill health

Fear and worry

Indecision and doubt

Frustration and discouragement

Poverty and want

Evils like envy, greed, jealousy, anger, hatred, and superstition.

Definiteness of purpose is having a clear picture of what it is you want from life in terms of your major desire and knowing what you are going to give for your rewards.  Dream and make your dreams a reality.  First comes thought; then organization of that thought into ideas and plans; then transformation of those plans into reality.  The beginning is always in your imagination.

Remember: 

He, who dreams most, does most.

To find yourself, think for yourself.  ~Socrates

We are given one life to live and the decision is ours whether to wait for circumstances to make up our mind or to act and in acting, to live.