Self-worth is defined as the sense of one’s own worth or value as a person. Though it’s often used as a synonym for self-esteem, self-worth is more about valuing your inherent worth as a human being, as opposed to measuring yourself based on external factors.
Unfortunately, we live in a competitive, image-conscious, material-driven, and achievement-oriented society where people want to be above average to feel good about themselves. In this sense, you may find yourself searching for self-worth by comparing yourself to others.
The truth is, there’s always someone somewhere who is more beautiful, successful, or richer than you, so going the comparison route will only make you feel worse about yourself.
True self-worth comes from within. People who base their self-worth on internal sources such as what they can do to make this world a better place, tend to be happier and feel better about themselves as opposed to those who value themselves based on external factors (their appearance, having a fancy car, many friends etc.)
Let’s take a look at some of the things you can do to learn how to increase your feeling of self-worth:
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- Write down 7 minor goals for the week and tick one off each day as you achieve it.
- Read a book a month. Reading a book is actually an achievement in this technology and media-driven world and reading a full book is a great way to achieve a sense of accomplishment.
- At the end of each day before falling asleep write down something you feel proud about, either on the day or in the past.
- Tell someone else how much you appreciate them, being able to be open and honest is great for self-worth.
- Say no! Learn the skill of saying no without offending the person asking.
- Everything you do, do to the best of your ability even if it cleaning the toilets or something equally as mundane, develop a reputation as someone who takes pride in their work.
- Walk tall and proud. walk as if you’ve got somewhere to go and you need to be there now, never run just walk tall and quickly.
- Dress as smart as you can for each occasion, whether it be work, meeting a friend, or going for an interview. Take pride in your appearance.
- Do something for yourself every day.
- Learn a new skill or take up something you’ve always wanted to and stick with it.
- Speak up for yourself in every area of your life, this might be hard to do at first but the first time you do it will be immense and if you carry on your self-esteem and feelings of self-worth will soar.
- Sing at the top of your voice, not outside but in the house, and really give it loads (I love singing Free Fallin’ by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers at the top of my voice, ah! such a good feeling.
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So as you can see many of these increase your self-confidence but can also help you achieve a higher degree of comfort that is felt within.
Also, realize that every single person in the world has their own special talents and abilities and skills and no one single person is the same. Learn to recognize what those special talents and abilities are that you yourself have, and work on developing them, consider the points illustrated previously, these are only some of the ways that can help you achieve this.
