You, yourself, as much as anybody in the entire universe deserve your love and affection. -Buddha

All of our relationships depend upon our relationship with ourselves. If you don’t love yourself, you can’t possibly love someone else. If you don’t respect yourself, you likely won’t make respectable choices. If you don’t value your time, you probably won’t use your time in a way you might deem valuable.

The way you treat yourself dictates how you’ll treat the world around you. So in this 2 part post, I say we should all recognize all the good we each do each day. While rattling off physical things and conditions that we deem to be positive, we should take a moment to celebrate the person who also weathers the negative. Here are a few things to appreciate about yourself today:

The Good Things You Do for the World:

  • You care about your work, or something you do outside it, and you do it passionately.
  • You want to make a difference.
  • You vote to create positive change.
  • You recycle to preserve our natural resources.
  • You choose not to litter.
  • If you’re a parent, you’re shaping the next generation.
  • You give back, whether that means volunteering, donating old clothes, or simply helping a stranger in need.
  • You call for help when you see something potentially hazardous.
  • You teach something valuable to someone everyday, whether you realize it or not.
  • You make positive changes in yourself and being the change you want to see is the best way to change the world.
And one last one: You’re great, you’re wonderful, and everybody likes you. (OK, so that one was Rodney Dangerfield, but it felt apropos!)