There are many valuable and respectable qualities for a man to possess, such as confidence, ambition, and stoic command over emotions to name a few.
Possessing these respectable qualities is no easy task, however...
In order for a man to possess these highly respectable traits, there is a process of due diligence in pursuit of something greater than himself.
This requires commitment and clear focus towards pursuing something of purpose - this is also the root of ambition.
Possessing highly respectable traits as a man means one simple thing: working towards something of genuine meaning regardless if we feel like it or not.
We all have days where we don't feel like doing the things we know that we should be doing.
For some, they choose to do nothing and continue feeding their same repeated patterns of behavior.
And for those who do what they need to regardless of how they feel end up being the ones that possess these common respectable traits.
There is one trait, however, that is more valuable than all of them.
In fact, I would even argue that it is the most valuable trait that any man (or woman) could possess, and that trait is self-respect.
In the modern world, genuine self-respect is often misconstrued.
In other words, there are those out there who possess bad habits in seeking short term gratification in some way, shape, or form, and claim to have self-respect.
While we are all human and we all have natural urges to seeking short term gratification, true self-respect is earned through a long process of achieving clarity between mind, body, and spirit.
Doing drugs, drinking alcohol, and having meaningless sex with random people is the opposite of self-respect.
True self-respect is also a matter of understanding how to not be taken advantage of.
Being as that we are humans and have patterned behavior, when we constantly find ourselves attracting people that are just searching for something out of us short term, we often fail to realize that it is because of our own lack of self-respect.
We see many examples of this in modern day dating through use of platforms like dating apps, people going back to their exes, talking to handfuls of people all at one time etc.
This rapid cycle continues to get reinforced because much of poor behavior that results in a genuine lack of self-respect is deemed as being "socially acceptable."
Most people are not even made aware of when someone else is genuinely trying to take advantage of them.
As a man, this is one crucial quality to possess, but like the other qualities mentioned at the beginning of this post, self-respect must be earned!
It must be earned through the same process of due diligence used to achieve the other respectable qualities.
This means showing up for yourself everyday and making it a point to be better than the day before, regardless of how you feel.
Understanding and accepting that there are days that are going to suck, but the work still needs to get done anyway.
We must be able to learn how to identify when someone is trying to take advantage of us for some form of personal gain.
Learning when to say "no" and how to walk away from people and situations in which you know are trying to get something out of you short term is all a part of learning how to have self-respect.
Do not let anyone take advantage of you and rob you of your worth.
If you are doing what you need to be doing day in and day out, you will already know your worth and anything less than would just be a waste of your time.