And hello to you and welcome to the Richard Nichols podcast, the Personal Development

Podcast series that's here to help inspire, educate and motivate you to be the best you

can be.

I'm psychotherapist Richard Nichols and this is episode 195. It's titled, It's Okay to Be Selfish.

And if you're ready, we'll start the show. I'm sure you've heard the phrase, do unto others,

as you would have them do unto you. It's a phrase based on something Jesus supposedly said in the sermon on the Mount,

"'alongside, blessed other peacemakers,

"'maybe even blessed other chees-makers, and perhaps even the big noses.

"'Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.

"'Basically, look at how you would like to be treated

"'and treat other people

the same way and we'll all live happily ever after. Sounds great if we all played by that rule.

But I do think that in order to treat others well so that we receive the same respect back,

we need to start closer to home. We need to start by doing unto ourselves

as we would do unto others. I mean, if you're listening to this, and you are, then you're probably

a decent person. The chances of somebody cruel, selfish and sadistic subscribing to personal

development audio is a bit slim. So I'm going to go out

on a limb and say that you're a nice person, a well-intentioned, respectful, honest human being.

And you probably do like the idea of treating someone in the same respectful way that you'd like to

be treated too. But how about that same respect that you

have for other people, you also have for yourself? That's not overly selfish. It's not doing anyone

a disservice if we put our own needs first, because by not treating ourselves well, how can we expect

...