In the mood of Valentines and love, self-love and love towards others dictate giving the best. This begs the question, are you the best version of yourself? The other day I learned a valuable lesson from a friend on self-love when she said, “Everything starts with you, it’s only after you have embraced and loved yourself can you then allow yourself to receive and give love.”
This is indeed a challenge and a paradigm shift. We are often blaming the other person for not giving us what we deserve, but what version of ourselves do we portray? When it comes to self-love, how much are we working on improving ourselves through knowledge, experience, personal brand, healthy living etc? Do we know our self-love language? And how much do we exercise it on ourselves before expecting the other person to do it for us?
When it comes to a relationship, we are always looking at what the other person is not doing right for us. How good are we? Do we give/show love just for the sake of it or is it from deep down the best we can give. Some of us recently celebrated Valentines and probably gifted our significant other just for the sake of it being Valentine’s day and probably to fulfil our obligation, but that is not what true love is. Love is knowing that come what may, you have given the best you could, that you have given 100 percent in the relationship.
In all that we indulge in, whether it is personal issues, in a relationship, at the workplace, in our family, we are challenged to be the best version of ourselves. Life is too short and sometimes we never know about tomorrow. Sometimes we lose opportunities in our careers, business and relationships, not because we didn’t have what it takes, but because we chose not to give our best, until it was too late.
There will always be someone better than you in every aspect of your life, but there’s fulfilment in knowing that you are giving the best of who you are, first to yourself and then to others. To get a male perspective on this, please read Mitchell’s post HERE
