It’s been said that the way we treat others will affect the way we ourselves are treated. If this is true, then it would be well worth taking the time to examine our own actions and words, and considering how we would want others to treat us if the roles were reversed.
If everyone I knew treated me the way I treated them, whether in public or behind closed door, would I be OK with that? If not—if I wouldn’t want others to act or speak in the same way towards me as I do towards them—how do I justify myself in doing the same things?
And this applies to all areas of life. If I’m an employee, and then the roles were reversed so I was now the boss, how would I want my employees to work for me? If I’m the leader, and suddenly I’m in the role of the follower, how would I want my leader to lead? If I’m a spouse or a parent or a friend, how would I want to be treated if the roles were reversed? If we know how we would want others to relate to us, then we’re also responsible for whether we do the same to them.
This is not a difficult concept to grasp, but can be extraordinarily difficult to put into practice. Yet, taking this concept to heart, and truly living out the golden rule (doing unto others as we would have them do unto us), will have a profound impact on how we act and what we say, both publicly and privately. And over time, as others see this kind of character developing in us, it will also end up affecting the way they in turn treat us.