This is not a blog about religion, nor is it “religious.” With that out of the way, let me start this post with a quote from Jesus…

Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself. All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.

I would paraphrase what he said like this…love God (or good), love people and start with yourself!

Religion would try to convince us that the first part can be satisfied via some dogmatic code…like praying a certain way. I believe Jesus would rather tell us that we demonstrate our love for God by doing good (in fact there is a whole book of scripture largely based on that notion…it’s called James).

But the quote from the bible above seems slightly out of order. I say that because one can’t do the first part unless one has things in order vis-à-vis the second part.

I usually talk about that first part…doing good…having an impact. But in the wee hours of this morning I woke up and read “cover to cover” a book that I had downloaded a couple days earlier. The name of the book is Love Yourself Like Your Life Depends On It by Kamal Ravikant. It is a very quick read, took me all of about 45 minutes. But it impacted me…and isn’t that what a book is supposed to do?

The title of the book pretty much gives away its content. It is a book about loving yourself. Now I know for at least someone who might read this post you are thinking at this moment, that’s a very self-centered concept. Well, not according to Jesus.

I spent the last 52 years of my life desperately seeking approval. I rationalized it as ambition. It has lead me down some disastrous paths. And all the while my mantra has been I hate myself (well maybe that’s a bit harsh…how about “seriously dislike”). People who hate themselves are capable of almost anything. They can channel that hate to productive means…or destructive ones. But either way, we can be a pretty ambitious bunch. We self-haters clamor for limelight…for fame and fortune. And then once we find it, we’re left empty and muttering…is that all there is? So off we go again…until we hit the brick wall, or the wishing-well bottom.

We self-haters clamor for limelight…for fame and fortune. And then once we find it, we’re left empty and muttering…is that all there is?

But this blog is not about ambition…it’s about impact. Wait a minute, what’s a self-hater like me doing with a blog like this?

Hmmm…damn good question. Well, Kamal’s book has opened my eyes to a dilemma I face with this blog, with my life…possibly with yours as well. That is, until I start loving me…I cannot really love you…and until I can truly love you, I can’t honestly have much if any impact on your life. I have no idea what might be the religious persuasion of Kamal Ravikant…but at least on that issue, he and Jesus are in complete agreement.

In order to do that god-given duty to do good…we have to have love and it all starts with self-love.

So, as Kamal cajoles, repeat the mantra…

I Love Myself, I Love Myself, I Love Myself…

For if we can’t even find ourselves worthy of love…it’s going to be damn near impossible to find anything else so worthy. And love is the only tried and true impact motivator. Ambition just won’t cut it…at least not in the long run.