If you do not respect yourself, how can you expect others to respect you? Respecting yourself simply means that you should be able to give value to yourself. Once you are sure of your own worth, you will surely be able to make other people realize about it.
A person who respects himself will eventually be able to grow that self-confidence within himself. Also, he is sure to have a positive attitude. It is important to understand the deficiencies within you and work upon them.
Nobody is born perfect and so are you! However, once you are able to identify your shortcomings and work upon them, you will also be able to realize your strengths and improve them for even better.
The statement given by Confucius also means that once we are aware of our strengths, and give ourselves the required amount of value, we will be able to respect ourselves. This also means that we do nothing that will put us into shame or embarrass us.
When we carry ourselves with respect, others would also return that same amount of respect to us. We ought to do good with our own selves so as to expect the same from the people around us.
At the same time, respecting ourselves means that we are affectionate and considerate about our friends and family members, and even to the strangers in our environment. We care for ourselves and take a note of each and every action that we do.
We make sure that none of our actions would affect others. We should treat others with respect and then only, we can expect them to treat us with the same amount of respect. Consequently, you must realize that the way people treat us depends on the way we allow them to!