What self-respect is and how important it is for one’s personality
Although we live in a world of change, in which each individual has learned to delimit himself in one form or another from social etiquette and to develop his own personality, we sometimes find with astonishment that there are people who have not yet developed, or worse, have not formed that concept of self-respect.
Respect for your own person is defined by the values you relate to, the principles of life you are guided by, as well as the trust you place in your own strengths.
The main factors that influence self-respect are:
- Self-confidence. To strengthen the dimensions of your personality, you must first set out who you are and what you want to become. Once you have established these criteria, make a goal of improving the aspects that you “still have to work on”.
- Feeling of trust and secure. You will only be able to maintain a healthy relationship with those around you if you have a healthy relationship with yourself. Never let yourself be trampled on by an unhealthy entourage or environment, just for the sake of belonging to a person or a group.
- Your identity. Self-awareness will shape your behavior, actions, and purpose throughout your life. We say “it will shape you” because everyone’s identity is formed over time and changes continuously, depending on the stages of life, events, people, aspirations, etc.
- Your abilities. You must always have realistic and appropriate expectations of yourself, depending on the skills you have developed over time. Don’t compromise on the office to get a better job or undeserved merits (especially those that violate the principles you strongly believed in until recently), as you will only lower your self-respect later.
Among the factors that can negatively influence self-respect are: age, genetics, various conditions, socioeconomic status, discrimination, racism, poor education, etc.
To increase or at least maintain a healthy self-respect, we recommend the following:
- Be aware of past negative experiences and delimit yourself of them.
- Learn to say NO whenever you feel this way;
- Express your needs both to your own SELF and to those around you;
- Trust yourself and your own strength;
- Think positive. Even if you are in a seemingly hopeless situation, you will see that through optimism you will find the best way to make things right;
- Accept your weaknesses and strive to diminish or improve them;
- Keep repeating that you are equal to others, no more, no less. Eliminate from your life those who consider you inferior, not because they are better than you, but on the contrary, they do not deserve your time and attention.
In short, your mental health is formed and above all, it is maintained by this self-respect. Remember, before respecting those around you, always keep in mind that it is essential to respect yourself. Why? Because the perception of those around you will be influenced without exception by your own perception. And perhaps most importantly, you will never gain the respect of those around you if you have not earned your own respect first.
