Telling Yourself, You Are Enough: Building Your Self-Worth

Self-worth is more than just how you see your likability and attractiveness. It’s more about how you value yourself and your genuine perception of who you are and what you’re capable of.

It’s undeniable how people are currently living in a society that cultivates the fixation on pleasing others. And this is exacerbated by the influence of the internet and social media. People have started measuring their self-worth on how attractively they perform online, whether consciously or unconsciously. The more likes or interactions they receive, the higher their self-worth becomes. Rather than measuring how they genuinely feel about themselves and their achievements, they have depended on how people perceive them.

Society has long conditioned people to feel that the prettier you and your life seem to be, the more likes you’d get, thus, the worthier you are of love and appreciation. This mindset has negatively affected how people see themselves, resulting in the steady declination of the general public’s self-worth. While the internet and society’s functions play a massive part, change still starts within an individual.

Accomplish These Changes to Influence Your Self-Worth

Improving one’s self-worth has constantly been at the top of people’s priorities. Self-worth influences various aspects of one’s life, such as decision-making, relationships, and overall well-being.

In her book, author Jacqui DeLorenzo mentions how she has improved her self-worth through God’s love. With the idea that God provided her with the opportunity to live, she managed to grow and appreciate things around her. The belief that everyone is made from the image of God can make one go easy on themselves and identify their true potential. But when this doesn’t work, people can look into other means of improving their self-worth.

Identify what conditions and situations cause you trouble

Firstly, you need to analyze which situations push you into thinking you aren’t worthy or capable enough. This can be presentations in front of a crowd, a crisis, or crucial changes. Once identified, the next thing to do is pay attention to your thoughts about the situation. What do you think and tell yourself when you’re in the case? Re-analyze these thoughts, and determine whether they’re rational or not.

One way to test this is by seeing how you react to the same situation when others are in the position. For instance, when presenting, you might think that others judge your pronunciation. To analyze whether this thought is rational or not, if another person is in that position, look into your thought process. In most instances, you won’t even be thinking about that factor. This could also be how others perceive your situation more commonly than not.

Challenge and change your mindset

Studies have found that people who put themselves down or surround themselves with people who do so tend to have lower self-worth. Your mind holds the most significant influence on how you perceive yourself. Above others, you bring yourself down the most. One of the remarkable ways to control your perception of yourself is by thinking that you’re worthy, marvelous, magnificent, and every positive thing you can associate with yourself. By believing that you are, you’re slowly making yourself one.

Treat yourself the same way you’d treat anyone close to you. If you can be supportive and understand others, why can’t you do it to yourself? One way to do this is to associate your slip-ups with room for growth rather than seeing it as incapability. In contrast, retrain your brain to take credit for your achievements when they’re due.

Self-compassion is key

In line with the previous point, remember to go easy on yourself. It’s without a doubt that humans seek perfection. They wish to be great at the things they want. But they fail to acknowledge that sometimes things take time and require hard work. Take time to pursue things and continue working on them before dubbing them as something you’re utterly incapable of doing. Give yourself a second chance, perhaps more, when trying new things.

Be confident, or at least act like you are

The keyword here is faking it until you make it. While it’s essential to change your mindset, that alone isn’t enough to achieve long-term results. A change in your behavior is also significant. To acquire more and have the will to succeed more, you need to be confident.

However, it becomes challenging to bring yourself back up when you’ve long put yourself down. What should you do? If you ask others, professionals included, one of the primary methods they’ll tell you is to act. If it’s hard to do so genuinely, you can simply fake continue. Push yourself. Change won’t happen unless you behave outside your comfort zone. Even though you’re initially faking it, this will genuinely make you confident about yourself in the long run.