What do you respect? One way to answer this question is to simply make a list of the personality traits and characteristics that you find worthy of respect. A less direct but possibly more instructive way to answer the question is to make a list of people that you respect, and once you're done with your list, to think about each person and determine why you respect them. You may find some traits appearing repeatedly. Once you've narrowed down your list to just the traits that appeared most often, examine each one and decide whether it's elective; that is, a trait that a person can choose to have. You may find that the traits you most admire in others are ones that you could have if you simply chose to have them and wanted them badly enough that you were willing to do what's necessary to cultivate them in yourself.