Healthy Living

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The "I" Test
by Dan Langerock

While courtesy used to be the order of the day back in the old days, now selfishness has become the norm. How can you guard against this phenomenon in yourself as well as from others? You can see it plainly in the parking lots of your city, how people attempt to manipulate your conversations and time, and a million other ways. They even have the gall to believe they can tell you what to do, just assuming you will do it without considering your schedule.


1) Do you think of the needs of others before your own most of the time? Do you care about what plans others may have before you try to impose yours onto theirs?


2) How would you define a compassionate person? Do you see the needs of others around you or do you have the "blinders" on, thinking only of your own needs and schedule? How would you rate your compassion from 1-10, ten being best?


3) Are you likely to let others have the right-of-way, a parking place when both you and they are there at the same time?


4) When you are busy, do you have a one-track mind or are you aware of the feelings of others around you? Have you progressed or digressed in the area over the span of your lifetime?


5) Have you ever noticed that many people lose their courteousness as they get older? Has this syndrome affected you or your family? What is its cause? Is it a part of the aging process or is it a choice we make as we age?


6) How do you treat your mate or significant other? Has the way you treat them changed for the better or worse over time? Have you grown closer to that person or further away relationally? Is there a give-and-take sense to your relationship or is it always one person's way?


7) Are you objective about how you see yourself in the way you treat others or does this have to pointed out to you by others?


8) How do you wish to be treated by others and is that wish reality? Have you ever thought about the fact that how you treat others will come back to you one day--good or bad?


9) What personality type do you admire? Do you emulate that person in your own personality?


10) Have you ever wondered how others perceive you as a person? If they told you how they felt, would that be a positive or negative experience?

The purpose of this test is to help us realize how we are treating others. That is the first step toward changing what we are doing for the better, if it is going to happen at all. Personally, I would rather be introspective and figure out what I am doing wrong and correct it for myself than having to be told by someone else, because by then it may be too late. One thing I try to do each day is think back and analyze the way I have treated others that day. Usually, if I have done something wrong it stands out without much problem of trying to remember. If a person doesn't care about how they treat others, this introspection is moot. Only by caring will we see the right from the wrong we have done in our lives. Any other attitude is anarchy.

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