Self-respect is a fundamental for a great life. If we lack self-respect, we will be insecure and may be someone who we are not. To develop self-respect means to cultivate self-confidence to deal with whatever life throws at us. The following are some ways we can improve our self-respect. Remember, self-respect comes from distinct inner belief and not derived from the egoistic feeling of superiority.
There is great social pressure from parents, work and society to become a certain person and to achieve certain things. It is a pressure hard to detach from. But, a real self-respect only comes from being true to our inner calling. It is important to have faith in your own values and consider what is important to you. Just because other people think you should behave in a certain way, doesn't mean they are right. Everyone needs to follow their own path.
We are sensitive beings. Nobody likes criticism and when we are criticized, either directly or indirectly, we feel bad about ourselves- even if the criticism is not justified. In order to maintain a sense of self-respect, we have to learn how to deal with criticism. Don't take criticism personally. Look at it from a detached perspective. Maybe it is false, in which case we should ignore it. Just because we are not very good at a particular task, doesn't mean we need to lose our self-respect.
Our appearance is important. It can give us confidence or it can make us feel awkward. Take care of appearance; dressing smart for the right occasion gives us self-confidence. At the same time, we don't want to be the slave of fashion trends. Dress for your own benefit; don't dress in the expectation of pleasing others and receiving compliments.
If you are jealous of other people's success; it has a possibility of losing our happiness and self-respect. Jealousy is simply envy of other people's success. Sometimes it can even lead us to knocking the other person. If we follow this path of jealousy, we will definitely lose our sense of self-respect. When we are constantly comparing ourselves to others, we are saying our self-respect depends on being better than others. But, the truth is, there will always be some people more successful than ourselves.
Sometimes we work with the best of motives and the best of intentions only to be disappointed by the outcome. It is the nature of life that things will not turn out as we hoped, but, it is a mistake to link our sense of self-worth to the achievement of external targets. Self-respect comes when we value our attitude to life and other people. Even if things go badly, don't lose your self- respect.
We make mistakes, we may do the wrong thing: but we should never put ourselves down unnecessarily. If we are careless; we start bitterly regretting things and even disliking ourselves. We should never hate ourselves. It is very destructive. Listen to your conscience, but, don't be hard on yourself and feel burdened with guilt.
You will not be able to build self-respect if you are permanently striving to impress others with outer displays. People who are impressed with material wealth and social standing are probably the kind of people not worth impressing anyway.
With💙
©chrysanthemum
