A couple of days ago, my partner and I received good foot massages, along with a great motto. As the session wrapped up, the masseurs showed us some stretches to loosen up our shoulders. These were the stretches they often used themselves. 

Then, one of them concluded, “To be a good masseur, be a good patient.” I found myself nodding enthusiastically. Those were turning words to me; they glued together the bits of a new story I’d been accumulating for a long time.

To be a good speaker, be a good listener. 

To be a good writer, be a good reader. 

To be a good employee, be a good customer.

The list goes on. And it can be modified, too. For example, to truly love somebody else, love yourself.

Her motto falls in the lineage of two ancient bits of wisdom:

First, the motto from Greece, “Physician, heal thyself.”

Second, translated from Latin (via Whitney Cummings), “You can’t give what you don’t have.”