My name is Corrine, and today I’m going to be sharing with you a topic on self-love versus self-respect and what I learned in life, and how it is helped me in life. In a nutshell, self-love is basically you taking care of yourself, pampering yourself, getting your nails done, getting your hair done, getting your eyebrows done, taking some time, time to relax, go to a spa that self-love. But self-respect. Wow. That’s a whole new ballgame on its own self-respect is looking at yourself in the mirror and actually liking the person staring back at you.
And I’m not talking about your physical features. I’m talking about something deeper, more to really like you, liking your character, like the way you behave, like the way you show up as a person in this world, as a spouse in this world, as a mother in this world, as a sister, as a brother, whatever the roles that you play just outside yourself, you know, what is this the best version of myself I’m putting out there? And if some of us are to look in the mirror, like when I looked in the mirror about I look in the mirror every day, but in my journey of finding out who I am, I was a really bad space about nine years back.
My marriage wasn’t in that good space. I wasn’t good as a mother. The amazing thing about self-respect is it cannot be bought. When you look at that person in the mirror and that person stares back at you. You can’t buy that self-respect, respect, and deep down inside one of each and every one of us, we all got to hardships and in some way, shape or form. At some point in life, if we have to truly be true to ourselves, we would say that we are failing in some aspects of it. So my journey really started nine years ago and. For me, I would compare my journey to that of an onion. And when you have an onion and you tend to peel back the layers of the onion, you have to get to the very core of it.
And at the very core, I learned so much about myself. I learned what were the triggers in my life. Why I got upset with people suddenly. What are my values, what are my standards, what do I bring to the table?
What do you bring to the table? I’d like to leave this with you when you look in the mirror.
And if you had an honest conversation with yourself.
What do you bring to the table?
And when you look in the mirror, are you happy with what you see? The person staring back at you.
Is that the best version of yourself?
Is that who you were born to be?
In Jeremiah 29:11
God says to us, I know the plans I have for you. Plans to prosper you and not to harm you.
Plans to give you hope in the future. And what I have taught my kids to do is.
To put their name in the scripture. So I will say it with my name for I know the plans I have for you Corrine, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.
And that is like such an amazing sculpture and it’s filled with so much promise. But in order for me to get those promises, I had to do the hard work. It took nine years of hard work, nine years of pulling back the onion layers, nine years of looking at me and saying. I don’t like what’s staring back at me, so how can I?
How can I do better?
How can I be the best version of myself?
And when I stopped doing this, because every time you point your finger at somebody, these three fingers pointing back at you. And I owned my failures. And I owned my shortcomings and I owned where I lacked.
I was able to find what I needed to find and do what I needed to do to move forward in life.
So when you look in the mirror, do you really respect yourself?
Do you respect yourself as a person?
As a husband, as a wife, as a child. As a daughter. As a businessman, as a businesswoman.
I living life differently. Does it have meaning, are you living a meaningful life?
Are you living a purpose-driven life?
Because in order for you to live a purpose-driven life, you’ve got to do the hard work.
There are no shortcuts, there’s no escape. There’s no force quit or reboot. You got to do the hard work and often means staring at yourself and saying. And having a very real conversation with yourself and seeing. I saying to yourself I am messing up here.
How can I? Those three words will transform you and push you, it will push you past your comfort zone. And it’ll actually lead you down a path where you will meet so many people that have walked this path before you. And allow the word of God to guide you and light your path.
Those are the most empowering words that you will ever hear in this lifetime.
How can I how can I make a difference?
How can I help? And when you do that when you say those three words, then it’s only then that you actually start having a really real conversation, would you? We all have this thing called self-talk. So we are continuously talking to ourselves 24/7. Whether you choose to acknowledge it or not, it’s on a subconscious level.
And so men thinketh that shall he be. So if you are going through life blaming everybody for where you are and what has happened to you. You’re never going to really grow. And the three most powerful words for me were,
‘How can I can?”
It can shape you in ways beyond anything anybody can ever do for you?
Because it holds you accountable, to you.
And isn’t that so beautiful?
That every morning when you look in the mirror and you can say to yourself. How can I be the best version of myself? How can I be a better mother? How can I be a better wife? How can I show up differently in this one?