Have you ever felt your relationship with someone is going downhill, but you cannot quite put your finger on why? Yeah, me, too.
Usually, it revolves around allowing our mutual respect to get minimized in our relationship. We just live our lives acting toward and reacting to each other without being mindful of what we are doing and how we are doing it.
Most dictionaries define “respect” as either a verb or one of two nouns.
- Verb – admire (someone or something) deeply, as a result of their abilities, qualities, or achievements.
- Noun – a feeling of deep admiration for someone or something elicited by their exhibited values, abilities, qualities, or achievements.
- Noun – a relation or reference to a particular thing or situation or a particular way of thinking about or looking at something
As part of my concept of Greatness!, I believe respect is a relationship between two particular people based on a deep admiration of each for the other elicted by their respective exhibitions of their values, abilities, qualities, or achievements.
In one of his many books on relationships, the noted psychiatrist, Rabbi Abraham Twerski, M.D. discusses relationships based on respect acronymically as a “magic formula” using:
- Restraint,
- Effort,
- Sensitivity,
- Patience
- Empathy
- Consideration, and
- Tolerance.
I could not agree with him more.