Why Working on Your Self-Worth Isn't Selfish

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Think having high self-worth is selfish…

Think again!

Because in this post I’m going to tell you all about the benefits of having high self-worth.

And how having high self-worth isn’t selfish at all! But it’s actually the best way to both create a life that you love AND help other people.

So keep reading to find out why having a high self-worth isn’t selfish, big-headed or arrogant. (Or anything like that at all!)

In a previous post, I explained how important it is to have a high self-worth for our own mental health .

And you can read that post here!

But what about going one step on from that?

Because we often think that having a high self-worth means that we have a high opinion of ourselves. That maybe we’re arrogant, that we go on and brag about our achievements…

And in that way, we often assume people with high self-worth are selfish.

But I want to explain to you exactly how having high self-worth is actually the opposite of selfish, and those people who are bragging about their achievements and seem extremely arrogant and selfish really have very low-self worth…

(In fact, all that bragging is most likely their defense mechanism because their self-worth is so low…)

Quick disclaimer: I talk about mental health in this blog post. If you suspect or have been diagnosed with mental health issues please make sure to see your doctor and/or medical health professional.

I talk a lot about things that you can do personally to improve your mental health. But you also need your doctor and/or medical health professional’s input as well.

Benefits of high self-worth

Why having a high self-worth isn’t selfish and the general benefits of having a high self-worth

To explain why having a high self-worth isn’t selfish and the benefits of having a high self-worth… We need to talk about why having a high self-worth is so important.

Because in answering that question, we answer the other questions too!

And there’s two main reasons I want to talk about, for why having a high self-worth is so important.

Reason One

Because when you have a high sense of self-worth you don’t end up stuck on the hamster wheel of only feeling worthy when you’ve accomplished something…

And this can get very damaging very quickly, and lead to never feeling content. (A horrid feeling.)

Most of use are are taught that our accomplishments are what make us worthy.

This is what gets drummed into us at school, college, and university. And so we grow up believing that our worth is dependent on our accomplishments.

There’s all these tests and grading so you always have a clear mark for where you are and how well you’re doing.

But when we reach adulthood there’s a lot less testing and grading.

So if you’re already entrenched in the belief that your worth is dependent on what you accomplish, as you become an adult there’s a lot less room for obvious accomplishments…

And so it becomes a lot harder to think you’re worthy…

This is something that I massively struggled with.

I was the person that always worked for the A grade. Which meant everything for me was about reaching that because it finally made me feel good about myself.

And that’s great in one way (I got great grades and thus I had lots of opportunities and options for my life.)

But in another way, as soon as I was out of schooling it really hit me that no one’s grading me here.

Yes, you can still get things like job promotions. But unless you’re in a line of work where there’s extremely, rapid progression, things like job promotions don’t come around very often.

So you don’t have the opportunity to “accomplish” like you did at school, which can leave you feeling completely worthless…

Then, when you’re feeling worthless, you don’t look after yourself, you overstretch yourself and you just don’t feel good about yourself.

So having a higher sense of self-worth is so important to not get stuck like I was on linking my accomplishments with my worth.

You don’t get a handy little grade and marked on your life accomplishments.

Life is for living.

And when you’re stuck on that hamster wheel of your accomplishments giving you your worth, then you don’t live life.

You just look for your next accomplishment, and it’s honestly a waste of a life.

Benefits of high self-worth

Reason Two

And then reason number two…

Having high self-worth is so important because if you don’t have it then you’re probably never going to reach your potential…

Now, you might be thinking that that’s a load of rubbish. Especially if you have low self-worth, you might convinced that have you barely any potential at all…

But whether you believe me or not, you do have gifts that the world needs and/or wants.

You could be the person who discovers the cure for cancer. You could be the person that saves a dog from a rescue center and gives it a good life. Maybe, your gift is entertainment and your ability brings light to someone’s life.

The point is we all have multiple wonderful things about us. But when you have a low self-worth you don’t recognize that you have these potential gifts.

And so you don’t feel confident sharing them with the world.

Which is really where the whole idea of basis of how having a high self-worth isn’t selfish, it’s selfless, comes from…

Because if you are not sharing these wonderful gifts with the world then that in itself can be selfish.

You don’t know out there who needs your specific gift, who needs what you can do.

It might be one person, it might be millions of people, it might be an animal, it doesn’t matter.

The point is you have something about you, more than one thing about you, that can make a real difference.

And when you keep putting yourself down and keep thinking that you are worthless, you are stopping that gift from going out into the world and doing the good it needs to do.

When we all work on our self-worth, the world becomes a better place.

Why?

Because we let our gifts shine and allow them out into the world to really make a difference and help others.

But when we’re stuck in low self-worth that’s when we only do what we think others want. Or we feel small and don’t push ourselves, and so we don’t push what we know is good out there.

If anything it’s almost our duty to do the work on our self-worth so we can make the world a better place.

And think how many times people are mean or do unpleasant things because they feel less-than.

A perfect example of this is the person I was describing at the beginning of this post, who brags constantly.

Like I said, they’re likely doing that from a place of low self-worth. Because if you have a high self-worth you don’t need to tell everyone constantly about how much better than them you are…

You only need to do that if you think people might be judging you, or you’re worried about what people think.

There’s so much meanness and general unpleasantness that people do because they feel so bad about themselves. It all comes from a place of feeling less-than.

Imagine if we could remove that, the world would be such a better place to live…

Of course it’s unlikely that we’re going to be able to eradicate it completely! But if we all do our part; focus on ourselves, focus on increasing our own self-worth. Then amazing changes can happen for the whole world.

Because when you’re around someone who’s sure of themselves, and sees themselves as worthy, it kind of leaks onto everyone around too. That quiet confidence, it instills a sort of quiet confidence in everyone else too. It’s amazing, it really is amazing.

And it works in the opposite way as well…

If you are constantly second guessing yourself and you think you’re worthless, that also leaks out to the people around you and they can also start to feel less-than too…

So just by working on our own self-worth we really can make the world such a better place.

You can reach your potential and show the world what you have to offer, because you have so much to offer.

It’s not selfish to work on your self-worth, it’s the most selfless thing you can do.

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