Goethe had it right.!

Treat people as if they were what they ought to be and you help them to become what they are capable of being.

- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

As I think about Goethe's words above I wonder how I am with others - how I treat people. Often, when I'm in "my stuff" and I find myself in a challenging situation and they "don't get it" or they "can't get it" or some other off purpose judgement I am definitely not operating with Goethe's words in mind. My negative judgements affect how I am with them. My judgments are a part of the foundations of my behaviour, negative judgments then, in this case, do not provide a foundation for positive experiences.

I believe it is true that we treat people at the very least as how we treat ourselves. What if I'm not honouring myself, what if I am not living up to my internal idea of the best of who I am, who I ought to be? How might I be treating others when I am operating from a diminished and lowered internal bar of who I am? What if I applied Goethe's idea to myself? What might happen with the collorary of Goethe's words?

Treat myself as if I were what I ought to be and I help myself become what I am capable of being.

Fascinating - no? Fascinating YES!

Instead of being 'other' focussed as per Goethe's words, the collorary here shines the light back at me, at my actions at my treatment of me. If it is true that I can only accept people as much as I accept myself then it follows that my primary relationship is the one I have to get right, the one with myself.  I love Goethe's words and yet I believe that in today's world impose an expectation of change upon others. When those expectations are not met we often revert to negative judgements and then operate from those foundations. By applying Goethe's words DIRECTLY to yourself you do help yourself become what you are capable of and in the process you also " help them to become what they are capable of becoming."

Most everyone has read or heard Marianne Williamson's poem - the second last line is also a collorary of Goethe's quote.

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.

- Marianne Williamson

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