Mike DomitrzPresident, Author, and Speaker on Respect, The Center for Respect, Inc. · Author & Speaker on Respect for Schools, Corporations, & the Military since 1990 (has reached

Real Support Starts with Presence

27 Apr 2025 · 1 min

Watch on YouTube

0:35

In this brief monologue, the speaker challenges the common meme of always "seeing the best in everyone" and argues that true support comes from being present, especially on days when people show their worst. The speaker contends that platitudes like "your day will get better" ignore the immediate needs of a hurting person. Instead, they propose asking directly, "what's happening? how can I be there for you?" and offering concrete support. The core message is that presence and active listening constitute genuine respect and empathy, rather than superficial optimism.

Chapters

There's these memes you see out there all the time, see the best in everyone. No, some days you're gonna see the worst in people and you still need to treat that person. In fact, I would argue those are the days we need to be there more for those people. The days we're hurting is when we need to lift people. And so if we just say, see the greatness in people, we also tend to ignore when they need our support. We're like, oh, your day will get better. Well, that's not really understanding me as a person or as a human. How about saying, hey, what's happening? How can I be there for you? How can I support you? Right? Being present to the moment is how you respect someone.