“You demand respect and you’ll get it. First of all, you give respect.” – Mary J. Blige

Growing up my father would always say “Respect yourself first, if you want others to respect you.” I never quite understood it growing up, but it makes   a lot of sense. You set the standard for how people should treat and respect you. At the same token, as Mary says, you can’t expect people to respect you, if you don’t respect them. I think it goes hand it hand, if you don’t respect others, you don’t respect yourself.