Life beats you down, you need to dust yourself off, shine your shoes, and get back out there. You take enough punishment from others and life itself, so even if you distance yourself from your naysayers, you can never outrun yourself. Take a moment each morning to look in the mirror and realize that you make a difference.

It’s important to give yourself the same respect you need to be giving others. It’s also crucial that you remember that while you’re not perfect, your value comes in the fact that you will be the only you to ever exist. That alone makes you unique, filled with unlimited potential. Respect your boundaries, respect your goals, and respect your integrity.

There’s a lack of respect and awareness for anyone from everyone, but the song remains the same, “respect is earned, not given.” That sounds an awful lot like a credit score. In truth, we build a lot of respect and trust by how we treat others. Someone who views his peers and strangers as inferiors probably demands respect or has a very poor concept of how it works.