"The praise of the praiseworthy is above all rewards."
I actually heard the phrase "praise of the praiseworthy" from one of Tim Keller's sermons (he leads the church I attend www.redeemer.com) but after my Google search I think he might have been quoting that from Lord of the Rings.
I thought of this particular quote because I had written a corollary to it a few months ago.
"Do not seek approval and recognition from the wrong people, for the wrong reasons, in the wrong way."
(yes, I did bold my own quote. Blog author privilege :) )
As an additional reminder to myself, I even wrote it on fancy stationary and put it in my bag as a reminder. I found myself needing this reminder as an anchor for my actions and my thoughts as I unconsciously and consciously tried to impress people who I had found out said unflattering things about me. I think the more rational response would have been to sever ties with them or adjust the relationship accordingly but like guys who are drawn to girls who play "hard to get" I found myself wanting to prove their statements wrong. What a losing battle of time and energy and self-respect that was!
I did regain my sense of perspective and I wrote down my quote one morning so that I wouldn't forget it. I was inspired to write my Monday Musing on this topic because I realized I wasn't alone in trying to find the best way to deal with negative PR that others can spread about you.
The first step was to recognize that I didn't want to live any more moments of my life trying to impress people who were frankly not worthy of being impressed. The second epiphany is the Positive PR Pact(PPRP) that I created to combat the negative PR. I have proof that he PPRP works and I look forward to sharing more about it with you all next week and launching it on a larger scale in the future!