How can you take care of your family if you are not taking care of yourself? What kind of example are you setting for your children if you are constantly trying to make them eat healthy foods yet you are overweight, unhealthy, eat high sugar, processed foods all day long and do little to no physical activity? What kind of example are you setting if you make your children do their homework every night and study to get good grades yet, you won’t pick up a book to read and better yourself? What kind of example are you setting if you teach your kids to be positive about life yet all you do is complain about your life? You say things like “I don’t make enough money, I don’t have a nice house, I don’t drive a nice car, I’m sick and tired of working so hard.” And on and on. YOU ARE NEGATIVE ABOUT EVERYTHING! My point is this, you have to take care of yourself before you take care of anyone else. Otherwise, you are doing a disservice to those around you by not giving them the best you.

Think about what they say on an airplane before every single takeoff. “In the event of an emergency, an oxygen mask will drop from the panel above your head. Safely secure your own mask before assisting others”. Why do you think they say that? Because if you don’t have enough oxygen, you can’t help anyone! Most people are walking around lacking oxygen yet still trying to breathe life into others. Your children, family, friends, coworkers, you are trying to keep these people alive yet slowly, every day you yourself are dying because you haven’t taken care of yourself first. You have no oxygen.
It may feel like you are being selfish to want to take care of yourself first. But think about how much more you could give if you were full of energy, full of life, full of oxygen. Your efforts would go a much longer way if you were actually leading by example.