Throughout this series, I use Nathaniel Branden’s definition of self-esteem to explain that self-worth fully realized is your acknowledgement and acceptance that you are appropriate to life and the requirement of life.
This definition of self-esteem fully realized raises a few points:
- To be appropriate means to be well suited for, to belong.
Therefore to increase your self-worth and fulfil the need for appropriateness to life, you need, first, empowerment and strength.
- And secondly, to be appropriate to the requirement of life, you need to believe that you are adequate.
Adequacy, empowerment and strength will help you increase your self-worth.
If you have low self-esteem and believe that you are both ill-fitted to life and inadequate, I want to shake your belief in this article.
Would you agree that self-worthiness is an inside out job?
However, some people look for it on the outside.
When you have low self-worth, no matter how often people compliment you and shower you with praises, you do not receive their compliment wholeheartedly. The reason being you do not feel deep in your heart that you are worthy.
Wait for it... Here is the significant shift: I am convinced that when you know who you are in truth, you can fathom your appropriateness to life and its requirements.
I believe that the biggest hurdle we face as human beings is to acknowledge our worthiness. The difficulty lies in accepting our worthiness when we are unaware of who we are in truth.
Who are you in truth?
To understand the extent of your worthiness, you need first to recognize who you are. You have shared this before. You are, in truth, a spiritual being, living in a physical body and having a human experience.
As a spiritual being, you are a being of light whose worthiness is to shine brightly. The essence of who you are is what you need to grasp to embrace the idea that you are loved, loving and loveable.
You do not serve the world when you dim your light because you are not your authentic self. In the case of low self-worth, you dim your light when you are unkind to yourself and constantly put yourself down.
This idea brings me to one of my favourite quotes by Marianne Williamson.
She writes in A Return to Love:
“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small doesn’t serve the world.”
Here are the ideas I derive from Marianne Williamson’s quote:
- Our deepest fear is the acknowledgement of our true power, our inner power. You can hide for years from your true power. I invite you to stop hiding and start expressing and being your true power.
What do you stop yourself from being?
- In my opinion, you get in your way when you stop yourself from being your authentic self and impose self-limitations. The self-limitations are the ‘I can’t’ stories you tell yourself all day long and the negative self-image you have created.
Who are you not to acknowledge your power, beauty, wholeness, talent etc.?
- As a child of God, it is your birthright to shine your light. When you shine your light, you express yourself authentically and positively. You playing small does not serve the world.
Let me ask you a few questions:
- How many times have you decided to shrink to please others or in order not to stand out?
- How many times have you hidden your true self, talent and beauty?
It is time to come out of your comfort zone. You do yourself and the world a disservice when you do not acknowledge your worth. It is time also to align your thinking with your true nature.
There is another point I want to touch upon, which is perfectionism. It is a subject very dear to me because I used to be such a perfectionist!
I can see how perfectionism can stop you from shining your light brightly, help you fall into an abyss of negativity and make you wait for everything to be perfect before you take action.
Be aware that perfectionism, to some extent, can get in the way of acknowledging your self-worth. You look for imperfections when you are a perfectionist. Consequently, you may have the same attitude towards yourself, others and your environment in general. In other words, you might always look for faults in yourself and others, and your behaviour becomes a habit.
Instead of looking excessively for imperfections, I recommend you introduce more goodness or 'good enough', more successes and celebrations in your life. Your perfectionism can bring to the surface negativity when you feel that nothing around you is perfect or working the way you desire.
When you measure your self-worth in terms of who you are in truth and not external factors, you realize that you are more than appropriate to life and the requirement of life.
Key steps to accelerate your success:
- Unleash your full potential by discovering who you are in truth.
Relevant resources:
Secrets To Increasing Your Self-Worth - Part 3
Secrets To Increasing Your Self-Worth - Part 2
Secrets To Increasing Your Self-Worth - Part 1
How To Solve Any Problem With A Positive Approach
Discover One Key Component Of Your Creative Power
Learn My Three Tips On How To Raise Your Self-Esteem
Prescriptions For Self-Confidence
Free tool to accelerate your success:
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