(Dialogue Practice)
Person #1: You have to earn your respect!!
Person #2: And I’m counting on you to not become like those who are already making stuff so much harder than necessary.
Person #1: But if you don’t take yourself seriously, then how will that motivate others to take you seriously!? How!?
Person #2: But how is being an asshole about it going to help me feel less discouraged along any self-improvement paths!?
Person #1: I’m not being an asshole, I’m trying to help you!?
Person #2: Well it sounds like your ego wants to hear itself give me advice in order to feel superior than to truly help..
Person #1: No!! You’re looking at it too negatively! What I’m saying is that the less you apply yourself and take care of yourself, the less others will want to respect you because they’ll think “why waste energy respecting someone who doesn’t take anything seriously..?”
Person #2: But they don’t know how challenging stuff has been for me. They think they “know”, but only I can know how I truly feel because I’m the only one feeling it. Not them. And I have been so respectful towards them. I have been so kind. And how is receiving more disrespect going to help me develop and sustain the inner peaceful clearness required to make better choices and therefore truly have more respect for myself!? How!?
Person #1: All I’m saying is that if you want people to respect you, you have to do stuff differently. You can’t go through life with this half-assed—
Person #2: The fact that you’d even feel a need to say something like that shows that you once again completely ignored everything I said while waiting to give more advice for another ego boost!!
Person #1: Well if you let me finish—
Person #2: Bullshit! You interrupt me way more than I interrupt you, I show you so much more respect! And your ego just likes to nitpick to criticize me in order to feel better about itself that it excuses as “constructive criticism”.. Just stop.. You don’t respect me at a—
Person #1: Either get your shit together, or never reach out to me again!!
Person #2: Exactly. Right there, your ego knows how much I struggle socially, so your ego sits and waits for me to reach out to you when no one else will respond, all in order to go on another ego trip to try feeling better and better about itself because the ego will never know how to truly respect others because all it cares about is—
Person #1: Man stop with the weirdass hippy shit..
Person #2: What the hell are you even talking about!? I’m making a thoughtful and sincere effort to speak my—
Person #1: Delusional bullshit.
Person #2: Man go fuck yourself.. I don’t need you. I’d rather live by myself than you being the only one I’d reach out to.. Just fuck off..
Zach Dana Writing 