The C.A.T. Principle – Global Ebook Awards GOLD & SILVER Winner for Best Self-Help Non-Fiction Ebook of 2014 & 2016

Self-Respect and the Empty Soul (Part II)

Self-Respect and the Empty Soul

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Self-Respect and the Empty Soul (Part II)

The words “empty” and “soul” do not belong together. Soul, by its very definition, entails emotional and spiritual warmth, while empty means, well…empty. Yet no two words describe more succinctly those people we sometimes encounter who leave us breathlessly asking ourselves, “What was that all about?”

This contradictory play on words reflects the mixed feelings felt in the presence of these charming, yet somehow acrimonious individuals. Something doesn’t quite add up. We can’t place it, but our gut says otherwise – providing we allow it and their charm doesn’t obscure our vista.

Unlike the self-respecting person, life for the empty soul is but a charade, a mirage, almost hallucinatory, if you will (see The Scariest Ghost of All…). They show signs of caring for and respecting others, however, deep down it’s a game void of meaning. Deep down it’s a black hole of despair buttressed by an unending lack of feeling – a lack of self-respect. Simply put: life is hell for the empty soul, but they’d never dare show or admit it.

To the world, the empty soul is all smiles, forever in perpetual motion, never suffering a bad day. Bad days are beneath them, just as the rest of humanity is. Fleeting here, fleeting there, the empty soul can’t stay still and abhors silence with a vengeance. Staying still and silence are synonymous with self-reflection, and nothing scares an empty soul more, lest they discover who they truly are, or more poignantly, who they truly aren’t.

In the eyes of the empty soul, respect is nothing but a platitude, a tool, a means to an end. It’s just another device in the arsenal to fulfill agendas and manipulate conquests. To the weary, gullible and the unsuspecting, the empty soul oozes confidence, zest and sincerity, but with time the cracks appear. Below the refinement, below the elegance, below the phony veneer wades an affluence of disgust, arrogance and pomposity: traits cloaking for an otherwise sad and empty soul yearning to be heard, yearning to self-respect.

On the contrary, the self-respecting make no airs, garner no pretensions. They know who they are and what they’re about. They recognize their failings and make no apologies for their imperfections. They’re real in the truest sense. Phony exists not in their vocabulary and their respect for others is genuine, not a contrived form of flattery. They have the courage to be bold no matter what others think. They have the courage to be themselves, like them or not.

Self-respect is the power to be who we are meant to be. We are not born with it, and that is its beauty. It is choice, choice for us alone to make, choice for us to change should we so desire (see Self-Belief: The Key to Personal Change…). Shall we respect ourselves as much as we respect others? Shall we treat ourselves and have others treat us as we would want to be treated? One would think yes, and yet many of us lead lives of false premises, pretending to be something we are not.

Let us not be empty souls, but let us be who we are meant to be. Let us respect, and let us be respected, and in the process, let us not forget to respect ourselves…

For more, check out The C.A.T. Principle: Change, Action, Trust – Words to Live By, a Global Ebook Awards GOLD Winner for Best Self-Help Non-Fiction Ebook of 2014, available at Amazon and Barnes & Noble. See the latest Amazon reviews here. Now revised and expanded, and a Nominee for the Best Self-Help Non-Fiction Ebook of the 2016 Global Ebook Awards.

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The C.A.T. Principle

A 2014 Global Ebook Awards GOLD Winner for Best Self-Help Non-Fiction Ebook.

A 2014 Global Ebook Awards GOLD Winner for Best Self-Help Non-Fiction Ebook.

Ebook Awards

A 2015 & 2016 Global Ebook Awards Nominee for Best Self-Help Non-Fiction Ebook

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