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Table of Contents

INTRODUCTION 4

YOU ARE WORTHY 6

COMPETITION AND COOPERATION – TWO SIDES TO THE SAME COIN 6
HOW COMPETITION/COOPERATION FOSTERED SELF-WORTH 8
TERROR, DEATH, AND SELF-WORTH 10
THE CONSTITUENT PARTS OF SELF-WORTH 11
TAKEAWAYS FOR THIS SECTION 13

WHY YOU NEED TO BELIEVE THAT YOU ARE WORTHY 15

WHY SELF-WORTH IS IMPORTANT 15
HOW TO EFFECTIVELY DEAL WITH CRITICISM 19
TAKEAWAYS FOR THIS SECTION 21

HOW TO INCREASE YOUR SELF-WORTH 22

TAKEAWAYS FOR THIS SECTION 25

CONCLUSION 26
Introduction
Do you know your worth?

Do you see your value?

Do you understand your importance in the grand scheme of things?

Perhaps the most important piece of information that any human being can
possess is a clear view of who they are and how they fit into the world around
them. We characterize this idea in several different ways – self-worth, self-value,
self-importance, etc. However, no matter the moniker that we hang on the idea,
the critical nature of seeing one’s self as we truly are remains the same and
undiminished.

This is a book about that worth. Specifically, it is a book about knowledge of

worth. A great many people tend to devalue or undervalue themselves when it
comes to their personal worth. The purpose of this book is to change that
perception and attitude and allow every person who reads these words to realize
that they are important, valuable and unique. However, before that can be
accomplished, a certain amount of education needs to be done.

It goes without saying that in order to know your self-worth you first have to
know that you have worth. That’s why the in the first section of the book we’ll
look at the fact of your worth. We’ll accomplish this by examining what self-worth
really is by breaking it down into its constituent parts. We’ll also look at how the
human need for self-esteem developed and how it functions as a positive force in
human society.

Knowing that you have worth is also contingent upon believing in that worth.
That’s why in the next section of the book we’ll take a look at how the belief in
your own worth develops. We’ll specifically look at the reasons why it’s important
to know your own value. We’ll also look at how you can effectively deal with
criticism and negativity, constructing emotional bulwarks that preserve your
sense of self-worth when it’s under attack.
Knowing what self-worth is in theory and why you need to believe in your own
self-worth are all well and good. However, they are somewhat meaningless and
abstract without knowing how to believe in yourself. That’s why in the final
section of the book, we’re going to give you the concrete steps that you can take
to increase your own self-worth. These tips are actionable and doable. You can
take the daily steps that you need to build your self-worth and accomplish the
things in life that matter to you.
You Are Worthy
In this section, we’re going to examine the concept of self-worth. There’s a very
specific and important reason why we’re doing this first. You can’t begin to
develop increased self-worth unless you first understand what self-worth is and
the role that it plays in human psychology and society.

That’s why in this section, we’re going to drill deep into the topic. We’ll start with
a look at the competitive nature of society and why this competition exists. Next,
we’ll look at the human development and how competition shaped the ways we
interact, specifically the role that self-worth played in that development. Then,
we’ll look at what self-worth really is by breaking it down into its parts. By
examining these parts, we’ll get an idea of why self-worth is important. At the end
of the section, you’ll be able to see that you are worthy simply because of your
membership in the human family. Your fellow travelers need you and their self-
worth is intimately tied up in yours.

Competition and Cooperation – Two Sides to the Same Coin

If you stop and think about it, you realize that we exist in a world of competition.
Now, this is something that a lot of people don’t feel comfortable thinking about.
They don’t like to think about having to compete. They don’t like to view life as a
zero-sum game. They would rather view the world as cooperative. Instead of
survival, the rules of the game are shaded towards sharing. However, there is a
problem with this way of thinking. It is unrealistic.

Competition is built into our genes. It is bred into our bones. We, by necessity, are
competitive animals. It is the nature of the way things are. It is how the world
works. It is the design of things. Now, some people don’t like to think about the
world in these terms. However, a reluctance to accept reality doesn’t change
reality, it is simply a delusion. Delusional thinking serves no helpful purpose. In
many instances, it is actively harmful. So, as a first step to developing an increased
sense of worth, purge yourself of any delusional thoughts and prepare to accept
the fact that by embracing competitiveness you actual begin to embrace yourself.
Think about nature. Think about the wild. What are the terms and conditions of
existence there? Is it cooperative? Is it competitive? Is it a combination of both?
There is a misconception that nature is designed to be cutthroat. It’s an easy
mistake to make. At first glance, nature seems chaotic. There are no hierarchies.
There seems to be no law. It appears to be very violent and brutal. All of these
observations are true. Nature is chaotic. There is no higher power to appeal to
when the prey is being eaten by the predator. However, that is largely a surface
observation.

When you look at nature more closely, you begin to see that there is a mixture of
cooperation at work along with the obvious competition. Yes, life in the wild can
be brutal and short. However, without the requisite cooperative structure that
exists on the broader canvas of competition, all life, both predator, and prey,
would cease to exist. Let’s take a look at some examples.

Consider the bee and the flower. The bee gathers nectar from the flower that it
needs for food. In doing so, it collects pollen from one plant and deposits it in
another. Neither bee nor plant can exist without the other. They are
interdependent. Biologists have a word for this type of relationship. They call it
symbiotic. Each partner in the symbiosis is out for themselves. The bee wants
food. The plant wants to reproduce. However, this self-interest is used in a way
that achieves the desired end result for both partners. You could say that it was
competitiveness overlaid with a veneer of cooperation, albeit unintentional.

This type of symbiotic example is repeated over and over again in the animal
world. Ravens who find carrion will eschew keeping it for themselves in favor of
flying off and communicating their find to the rest of the flock. They know that
there is safety in numbers. Some ravens can feed while others watch for danger.

Pilot fish nibble off the skin of sharks looking for bacteria. The pilot fish get a
meal, the sharks get a cleaning. The same relationship exists between the rhino
and the oxpecker bird.

In fact, the very cells in our bodies are a testament to the fact that cooperation
and competition exist side by side. The proteins that make up our DNA are
organic molecules that are only interested in self-survival. Yet, they learned to
combine together to form long chains that were better suited to finding food for
the individual members. These long chains, called amino acids, were the first
building blocks of life. If it wasn’t for cooperation, we wouldn’t be here at all.

So what does this mean to us? Well, we cannot forget that we are products of
nature. What we do and what we have built echo the rhythms that play inside of
us all. Therefore, when we look out at civilization, we cannot give into the
temptation to see everything as competition alone. In our world, nothing would
exist without the natural anchor of cooperation acting as a drag on the more
destructive impulses of competition. Business, politics, the very fabric of society
itself depends on our helping each other in an equal amount to helping ourselves.
It doesn’t matter that much of this cooperation isn’t altruistic. It doesn’t matter
what the motive behind the impulse is, what matters is that the symbiosis
between us exists.

How Competition/Cooperation Fostered Self-Worth

Now, we need to examine the connection between competition, cooperation, and
self-worth. Obviously, a sense of self-worth offers some type of behavioral
benefit, otherwise, it would serve no purpose in the natural world and wouldn’t
exist. So, in order to fully understand self-worth, we have to also understand how
it became such an important component in human society.

There was a time before the veneer of civilization existed when we lived in the
wild. We were subject to the same motivations as any other creatures in that
environment. We wanted to eat. We wanted to procreate. We wanted to survive.
Therefore, we struggled to eke out an existence in an ecosystem where the
number of mouths exceeded the resources able to fill those mouths. In our search
for the meaning of self-worth, we cannot lose sight of the fact that scarcity is a
motivating factor that is used by nature to force individuals to adapt.

So, our ancestors did adapt. As circumstance changed, so did they. We went from
being primarily arboreal to being primarily ground dwelling. We went from
walking on all fours to walking on two legs. That particular development requires
a brief pause for more explanation, since it may be the first example of real
cooperative behavior our species exhibited.

Right before the time that we began walking upright (geologically speaking), the
climate became drier and cooler. The jungle in which our ancestors lived began to
become sparser and was replaced by savannah. This meant that our ancestors
were forced to travel out into the long grasses of the savannah to look for food.

You can’t see very far in long grass when you move on all fours. This means that
you can’t see trouble until it’s right on top of you. Therefore, our ancestors began
to stand on their back legs to be able to see longer distances out over the top of
the grasses. Like ravens, they soon discovered that gathering food was more
efficient and safer if a few individuals took turns standing guard over the rest of
the group. As a result, they were able to stand for longer and longer periods of
time and grew more accustomed to walking on two legs rather than all fours. So,
you could say that cooperation was the motive force responsible for our species
taking its first steps.

Now, fast forward a couple of million years. Our species is still living in the wild,
but with some significant differences. Those first steps we took as a result of
cooperation have led us to a wide variety of discoveries and behavioral changes.
We live in small bands of hunter-gatherers who move seasonally with the game
that we hunt. We know the land well and are experts at surviving off of it. We use
tools and fire and language to give us an advantage over the beasts we hunt. We
are close knit with strong social ties and societal rules. We compete not only with
the land, but also with other bands of hunter-gatherers. Raiding for the purpose
of stealing women, supplies or simply for a demonstration of prowess is common.
Yet, within our own bands, we cooperate with each other for the good of all.

In this type of hunter-gatherer group, it was important that every individual

pulled his or her own weight. Each had to work not only for their own survival but
also for the survival of the group as a whole. If the group ceased to exist, so did
the individuals that made up the group.
Therefore, it was extremely important that each member of the group
understood what types of behaviors were tolerated and what types of behaviors
were not tolerated. Individuals who exhibited tolerated behaviors were rewarded
with greater status and acceptance by their peers. Conversely, individuals who
exhibited intolerable traits were punished with diminished status and respect.

In this way, a sense of self-worth developed as a way for an individual to check

their status and acceptance within the group. It was like an inner scorecard for
positive behaviors. In addition, it was an advantageous trait, since the group was
more successful at survival when every member was motivated by their sense of
self-worth to work hard and cooperate. Through this process, how you felt about
yourself had a direct correlation with your social standing. The connection
between these two disparate things continues today.

Terror, Death, and Self-Worth

There is another factor that led to the development of self-worth as an
advantageous social tool. Although not directly related to cooperation, it too used
behavior as a motivator to reward acceptable behavior.

One of the most illuminating, as well as terrifying, moments in human

development was when we became aware of our own mortality. There likely has
not been a comparable cognitive breakthrough since. The knowledge that each of
us will someday die has had a profound influence on how we act and think. The
first reaction is the realization is disbelief, followed by a profound feeling of
terror. We desire to avoid death, but we know that it is as inevitable as it is
inexorable.

Our ancestors felt the same way about death that we do. One of the ways that
they dealt with the terror that the inevitability of death brings was to manage it
through the development of a complex behavioral code. Just as good behaviors
were rewarded by increased status and acceptance by the hunter-gatherer group,
the same behaviors became associated with rewards in an afterlife. In other
words, if you lived an exemplary life, you’d be rewarded by avoiding personal
extinction. In this way, a sense of self-worth was reinforced by being a way for the
average person to keep track of how they were doing in terms of chalking up
points that would earn them a reprieve from death.

This has continued through to the present day. Good behavior, as defined by a
sense of self-worth, is still considered to be “money in the bank”, so to speak, that
will pave the way to an existence after death. Bad behavior, again checked against
self-worth, results in the opposite effect.

The Constituent Parts of Self-Worth

So, we’ve seen that the sense of self-worth was a behavior that reinforced
positive social interactions for the good of the group. Millennia of behaving this
way established a connection in each of us between how we feel about ourselves
and where we stand in society. However, in a large technological society, that
connection is no longer as viable or true as it once was in smaller hunter-gatherer
groups. There is no longer a one-to-one feedback between what we do and how
we are considered. In our smaller family groups, that feedback loop is still valid,
but in society as a whole, it no longer works.

Therefore, as a result of this disconnect, the benefit once provided by a sense of

self-worth is no longer as potent or powerful as it once was. In fact, in many
people, the lack of reliable positive feedback to reinforce positive behaviors has
made them question their self-worth. Let’s look at the constituent parts of self-
worth to figure out why this has happened.

When you take a close look at the phenomenon of self-worth, you quickly realize
that it is comprised of two parts. First, there is the need for respect from others.
You act in a beneficial manner and others recognize these actions for what they
are. As a result, they show you respect. Second, there is a need to respect
yourself. You observe that others are rewarding you for exhibiting beneficial
behaviors by showing you respect. Their behavior makes you feel justified in your
actions, and secure in your place in society. In other words, because you feel
worthy of respect, you respect yourself.
As you can see, these two components of self-worth, respect from others and
respect for yourself, work together like two gears to drive beneficial actions
forward across a wide swath of society. However, if one or both of these gears
malfunctions then there is no positive feedback given for positive behaviors.
Therefore, self-respect suffers and there is no motivation to attempt to succeed.
In other words, because no one notices socially beneficial behaviors there is less
motivation to exhibit those behaviors. At the same time, self-respect levels
tumble because there is no positive feedback or positive action to stimulate that
positive feedback.

It’s a vicious circle, one that many people are intimately familiar with. However,
there is a solution. The mechanics of self-worth are sometimes distorted by the
nucleated lifestyle forced upon us by modern society. Disconnected from the
natural groupings that gave rise to the idea of self-respect, we drift from action to
action and behavior to behavior, looking for the positive feedback that generates
self-respect and self-worth.

The solution is to stop looking to others to give you positive acceptance. Accept
that your good actions are beneficial in and of themselves. They are worthy of
respect, so give yourself the respect that you deserve. Feel good about what you
do. Know that what you do has made a difference. That difference may not be
apparent. However, if you look inside yourself, you can feel the difference that
you have made. We were once all members of a tribe. Now, some of us are tribes
of one, but that does not matter. A tribe of one is still a tribe and positive
behaviors that benefit that tribe are still worthy of increased status and
acceptance. Give yourself the respect that you deserve. Feel that respect and let
it inform your worth. Do not deny yourself. Do not lie to yourself. Do not become
trapped in the downward spiral of negativity. Tell yourself that you are worthy
because you are.
Takeaways for This Section
• Competition and cooperation are two sides of the same coin.
• We have to compete for what we need, but through cooperation, we
increase the chances of getting those things.
• Our ancestors understood this concept.
• In a hunter-gatherer group, it was important that every individual pulled his
or her own weight.
• Everyone had to work not only for their own survival but also for the
survival of the group as a whole.
• Therefore, it was extremely important that each member of the group
understood what types of behaviors were tolerated and what types of
behaviors were not tolerated.
• Individuals who exhibited tolerated behaviors were rewarded with greater
status and acceptance by their peers.
• In this way, a sense of self-worth developed as a way for an individual to
check their status and acceptance within the group.
• This was an advantageous trait since the group was more successful at
survival when every member was motivated by their sense of self-worth to
work hard and cooperate.
• When you take a close look at the phenomenon of self-worth, you quickly
realize that it is comprised of two parts:
o There is the need for respect from others – acting in a socially
beneficial manner results in peer respect;
o There is a need to respect yourself – observing the respect others
have for you allows you to respect yourself.
• These two components of self-worth, respect from others and respect for
yourself, traditionally work together like two gears to drive beneficial
actions forward across a wide swath of society.
• Unfortunately, the isolation of modern society can cause this process to
malfunction.
• We do not feel that we are working towards the good of a group, so self-
respect levels tumble.
• The solution is to become a tribe of one and give yourself the respect that
you deserve.
Why You Need to Believe that You are Worthy
We’ve seen what self-respect is and how it developed to become an integral part
of the human social makeup. We’ve also seen that self-respect is an imperative
element in a successful existence. So, you know the what, now it’s time to
examine the why.

In this section, we’re going to look at the reasons why you need to need to
believe that you are worthy. In order to do that, we’re going to look at why self-
respect is important, specifically looking at the benefits that healthy self-respect
provides. We’ll also take a look at some methods that will help you raise the self-
respect you have, specifically examining some ways that you can deal with
criticism in a healthy manner.

Why Self-Worth is Important

Understanding why self-respect is important is critical to improving self-respect.
When you know the many benefits that healthy self-respect brings, they act as a
motivating force, reminding you that you are indeed worthy of all that life has to
offer. Let’s take a look at some of these benefits.

Self-Worth Engenders Happiness

Many people struggle to find real happiness in life. They understand that they
should be happy. They desire to be happy. Yet, they still struggle with feelings of
unhappiness. Why?

This struggle for happiness occurs largely because many people have no
conception of the true nature of happiness. As a result, they equate happiness
with things – possessions, money, relationships and more. They fail to realize that
all the happiness that these things generate arises not out of the things
themselves but from the strong sense of self-respect and self-worth which made
the things possible in the first place.

True happiness comes from within, from a strong sense of self-respect. When you
respect yourself, you are happy with who you are. You are happy with what you
have. You are happy with those around you and you are able to make them happy
in return.

Self-Worth Builds Confidence

When you have respect for yourself, you also have confidence in your abilities.
New situations are not seen as chances for failure. Instead, they are seen as
opportunities to succeed. This is an extraordinarily potent personal outlook. With
the confidence that comes from self-respect, you have the ability to accomplish
more than you ever have before. Confidence acts essentially as a solvent for fear
and doubt. It dissolves away all of the negative emotional shackles that hobble
success and make getting the things you want out of life seems so difficult to
achieve. The formula is simple – build your self-respect and build your confidence
in order to get the life that you deserve.

Self-Worth Promotes Independence

A great many people with low self-respect need to rely on other people to
accomplish many of the things in life that other people accomplish on their own.
It is almost as if they borrow the self-respect of other as a sort of psychic
prosthesis.

There is no need for this. It is important to have other people in your life.
However, those relationships need to be on an equal footing. You should not have
to depend on others to move forward in life. Equally, you should not expect
others to use their courage and confidence to bolster yours. When you increase
your self-respect, you also begin to increase your independence as well. Realizing
that you don’t need someone for emotional support is an incredibly freeing
experience.

Self-Worth Changes the Way Your Approach Life

Do you find yourself approaching each day as if it were a battle? Do you struggle
with timidity, fear, and feelings of inadequacy? Do you fear of making mistakes?
Do you fear new situations?
If you answered yes to any of these questions then you are already familiar with
some the effects of low self-respect. However, life does not have to be this way
and life was not meant to be lived this way.

When you raise your self-worth, when you improve your self-esteem, you banish
all of those negative emotional habits to the trash heap. They are then replaced
with positive habits that are a result of the new way that you feel about yourself.

Self-Worth Allows You to Make Mistakes

No one likes to make mistakes. However, to someone with diminished self-worth,

a mistake is devastating. The fact that it happened is taken as proof of
inadequacy. It reinforces all the bad feelings that person experiences when they
think about themselves. In short, that mistake, no matter its effects, is the end of
the world.

This is one of the main reasons why people with low self-worth lock themselves
away from life. We’ve all heard the saying “Nothing ventured, nothing gained.”
Well, for people with low self-esteem, that saying very often is “Nothing
ventured, nothing risked.” For them, it is better not to try than to try and risk a
mistake.

Increased self-worth gives you the confidence that you need to take risks and
experience life, knowing that if you do make a mistake or misstep it is not the end
of the world. In fact, many self-respecting people welcome mistakes. They know
that making mistakes gives them the experience that they need to succeed and
achieve what they want to achieve.

Self-Worth Gives You Clarity

Low self-worth, as we’ve discussed, makes you afraid of life. As a result of this
fear, people with low self-worth are unsure about what they should do. They are
unsure about what direction to take in life. Everywhere they look seems dark and
risky. All options seem fraught with problems and even danger. Because of this,
most people with low self-worth tend to do nothing. They languish, wishing that
they could move forward and get what they want, but that darkness and
uncertainty keeps them stuck where they are.

When you raise your self-worth, you achieve clarity. You are able to perceive
exactly what direction you need to head in in order to make your dreams come
true. There is no murk, no darkness, and no uncertainty. Instead, the future looks
bright and the direction to get there is well marked.

Self-Worth Promotes Healthy and Fulfilling Personal Relationships

Let’s face it. Low self-worth is unattractive. No one wants to be around someone
who doesn’t like or love themselves. The ability to give and receive love is based
on how you feel about yourself. It is also based on being able to take a chance.
Loving someone fully is probably the most vulnerable position that anyone could
put themselves in. People with low self-worth are already vulnerable. They aren’t
going to intentionally go out and court more vulnerability. To them, that would be
a mistake. The end result is loneliness.

Healthy self-respect, as we’ve established, promotes positivity and confidence. If

there are two traits that are attractive to other people it is those two. Positivity
and confidence are the basis of charisma. People can’t help but like someone who
already likes themselves.

Self-Worth Gives You Control Over Your Life

In the end, the negative emotional responses that arise from low self-worth act as
a self-imposed prison. The fear, the inadequacy, the timidity and all the rest serve
to sever that person from the real word and the life they are supposed to live in
that world.

Increased self-worth breaks the bars of that prison and puts the control of your
life back into your hands. You are no longer held back by a negative self-image, an
image that was a mirage. You regain the power to make the decisions that can
positively change your life. When you know your worth, you are worth more than
you know.
How To Effectively Deal with Criticism
One of the best ways to understand the power of self-worth is to learn how to
effectively deal with criticism. When you can accept, and learn from the most
negative of your critics, you will have taken a large step towards accepting
yourself as a person of eminent worth.

Learn From Criticism

Every piece of criticism that you encounter, no matter how negative or ill-
intentioned contains an element of wisdom that you can learn from if you can
listen. That wisdom is power – power to improve your performance to silence
your critics and make your life better in the bargain.

Listen to the Criticism, not the Manner in Which it is Delivered

Oftentimes criticism is offered in a manner designed to build the critic’s self-

esteem at your expense. This “break you down to build me up” attitude must be
seen for what it is and ignored. If it is not ignored, if you take the tone of the
criticism to heart, then you are allowing the other person to harm you for their
benefit. This is wrong. Instead, ignore the tone of the critic and concentrate on
their words – this is where the true power of the criticism lies.

Learn to Love Criticism

Why not love criticism? After all, it’s a perfect way to learn how to become a
better human being and that’s what this is all about, right?

Respond, Just not Right Now

A response to your critics is always appropriate. However, and emotional

response that’s given as reaction to the criticism is not appropriate. The strongest
wall that you can raise against your most vociferous critics is to calmly listen to
what they have to say and then wait to respond. This gives you time to cool down
and think. It robs them of the power to use your negative emotions for their own
benefit.
Smile

A simple smile is the best response to all criticism. It keeps the playing field level
between you and your critic. It makes you look good and it demonstrates that
your sense of self-worth is stronger than any negative emotion that is thrown
your way.
Takeaways for This Section
• Understanding why self-respect is important is critical to improving self-
respect.
• When you know the many benefits that healthy self-respect brings, they act
as a motivating force, reminding you that you are indeed worthy.
• These benefits include:
o Happiness
o Confidence
o Independence
o A new outlook
o The ability to accept mistakes
o Clarity
o Better relationships and
o Increased control over life.
• One of the best ways to understand the power of self-worth is to learn how
to effectively deal with criticism.
• The best ways to deal with criticism include:
o Learning from criticism
o Listening to criticism
o Learning to appreciate criticism
o Responding appropriately and
o Smiling.
How to Increase Your Self-Worth
You’ve learned what self-worth is and you’ve learned why it’s important. Now, it’s
time to learn how to increase your self-worth. We’ve put together some simple
steps and tips that you can use every day to feel better about yourself, build
respect for your abilities and start to live the life that you’ve always wanted to
live.

Silence Your Inner Critic

One of the easiest ways to start increasing your self-worth is by silencing your
inner critic. What do we mean by “inner critic”? Well, that’s the little voice inside
your head that’s always telling you that you’ve done something wrong or that
what you’ve done is not good enough. It’s the voice that tells you that things are
not going to work out and that new experiences are scary. It’s the voice that’s
always telling you “no”, “stop” and “wrong”.

When you silence that voice, you’re free to do what you need to do to make your
life a better place for you. The choice is really quite simple – you can either live
life on your terms or you can life on the terms of your inner critic.

Take an Appreciation Break

In order to grow self-worth, you have to be aware of the things that make you
worthy. It’s often easy with our hectic lifestyles to forget about the things that are
most important, things like our own selves and our well-being! That’s why it is
important to take a few minutes every day to slow down and take stock of the
things that make you a special and worthy person. This doesn’t take a lot of
thought and it doesn’t take a lot of time. The whole purpose it to refocus your
energy on you and take note of the things that you’ve done during the day that
are of worth and that make you worthy. When you become reacquainted with the
things that give you worth, your self-worth increases automatically.
Set a Foundational Habit
It’s important to start each and every day on the right foot. When you do, the rest
of the day tends to follow in the direction of that first step that you take in the
morning. That’s why setting a daily foundational habit is so important. It doesn’t
have to be much. Doing something small, but doing it to the best of your ability is
more than enough. For example, you could make you bed in the morning, taking
the time to tuck everything away just right. Alternatively, you could wash up your
breakfast dishes and stack them to dry. The specifics of the action don’t matter.
What does matter is you taking the action.

After a few days, the care you put into your foundational action will start to have
an effect on all the other actions that you take throughout your day. As you begin
to see the positive changes in your performance, your sense of self-worth will
grow. In short, doing things the right way starts to make you feel better about
yourself.

Stop Perfectionism
Let’s put this out there right now – nothing in the universe is perfect. There are
slight chaotic variations in everything. What this means is that the universe was
created imperfectly. It also means that chasing perfection is a fool’s game.
Nothing you do will ever be perfect. So, stop beating yourself up about your so-
called lack of perfection. You and everyone and everything else in the cosmos is in
the same imperfect boat.

Instead of reaching for perfection, take satisfaction in doing things to the best of
your ability. No one can ask more from you than your best. Therefore, you
shouldn’t ask more from yourself than that. Realize what you do is good.
Acknowledge what you’ve done and give yourself proper credit. When you see
the results of your efforts in their true light, you will be surprised at how quickly
your self-worth will grow.
Be Kinder to the People Around You
Good actions engender good thought. That’s why when you treat the people
around you with more kindness, you feel better about yourself. Again, it’s all
about the little things. Start by being less judgmental and more accepting. A smile
and a hello can seem like little things but to someone else, they can mean
everything. A kind word costs nothing but when said at the right moment it can
be an invaluable asset. This world is what you make of it. You cannot change the
world, but as you make your way through the world you can change the way that
you react to the people who cross your path. When you do, you not only change
their lives for the better, you also change yours by increasing your self-worth in a
positive way.

Be Kinder to Yourself
On the same note, we often treat ourselves without an ounce of care. Remember,
you cannot do the things that you need to do to increase you own self-worth if
you don’t first take care of yourself. Treat your body positively. Get the rest that
you need. Eat the right foods. Exercise on a regular basis. When you are run
down, your conception of yourself is also run down. If you don’t have energy, you
won’t have the energy that it takes to raise your self-worth. It all starts and ends
with you. Love yourself and you have a greater potential for giving and receiving
love. That increased potential for love is an important component in your own
self-worth.
Takeaways for This Section
• There are simple steps and tips that you can use every day to feel better
about yourself, build respect for your abilities and start to live the life that
you’ve always wanted to live.
• These steps include:
o Silencing your inner critic;
o Appreciating yourself;
o Setting foundational habits;
o Stopping perfectionism;
o Being kinder to people around you; and
o Being kinder to yourself.
Conclusion
Knowing your self-worth and doing what you can in your daily life to increase that
sense of self-worth is one of the most important things that you can do. A solid
and secure sense of self-worth is a foundation that you can build a happy and
successful life upon.

In this book, we’ve learned how to define self-worth. We’ve also looked at the
purpose of self-worth and self-respect and how it serves to reinforce our sense of
place within society. We’ve also learned why self-worth is important and how to
effectively deflect criticism that can serve to damage and deflate a person’s sense
of self-esteem. Finally, we looked at some daily steps that anyone can take to
reinforce and improve their own sense of worth.

With this knowledge, your potential is essentially unlimited. You now have the
ability to protect and improve your sense of self-worth so that your life can be as
full and as rich and rewarding as you want it to be. Here’s to your future!