"Love yourself so that you can love others better"

What this "Love yourself so that you can love others better" means?

Sometimes I really think over this. Can you really love others if you love yourself more than others? Can you really think about others if you think just about yourself? Can you really think about thousands of people who live in abject poverty if you just love yourself and the list of questions keep on increasing.......

Almost everyone has a different take on this but no one could give me an answer that could satisfy me or must say my conscious.

For some it means: Keep yourself in the first place, love yourself and take every decision thinking what will benefit you or what will make you happy and let others take a back seat. Whatsoever happens to them is none of my business.

For others it’s: keep loving yourself so that you remain happy and with this happiness within can make you bring a smile to others faces as well.

Last time I heard it from a "spiritual leader" and I was aghast to hear that... I mean how a person who’s preaching love and selflessness can say this and I really couldn't figure out what that means. I really want to figure it out but it’s been 15 days and the struggle is still on....... and I’m still not sure whether I’m heading in the right direction or not. Hence I decided to post it here. I request everyone who reads this post to please comment on whether you buy this or not.....

Here’s my take on this one-liner.

Love yourself so that you can love others better to me means love others the way you would love yourself. Love others the way you want yourself to be loved. It never means being selfish and just loving yourself. It means in every situation be it good or bad think what would you have expected for yourself from others and do the same to them because after all “Love is all about giving selflessly”.

Well if you do that you would definitely love others better. You will never take a decision selfishly and you will do good to others always. Outlook will change and world will surely become a better place to live.

I just wish that this one liner used by spiritual leader just meant this.