Self-esteem is more than just confidence. It’s how you perceive yourself and your worth.
And it actually affects your life in more ways than you think!
In this article, I will give you 10 reasons why having a healthy self-esteem is so important to have a good life.
1) You’ll have a friend for life
When you value and love yourself, you can be sure that you’ll have at least one good friend who’ll be by your side through thick and thin—yourself!
When you’re your own friend, it’s not too hard to keep yourself from being alone. You know you don’t NEED anyone else in your life to make you feel loved, so being alone isn’t that big of an issue.
On the other hand, if you hate who you are, then it doesn’t matter even if you’re “living the best life” surrounded by a lot of people who care for you. You’ll feel lonely regardless because the one person whose opinion of you matters the most—you—doesn’t love you.
2) Making decisions will become easier
It doesn’t matter who they are—if we care for someone, we will of course want them to live happy lives.
And that applies to you, yourself!
By having a good self-image and loving yourself, it becomes easier to accept that you deserve to be happy.
So when someone offers you something that you know is less than what you deserve, you know that you deserve better and have no issues turning it down.
The same could not be said if you have low self-esteem, because then you would just take it thinking that you’re not going to get anything better.
More than that, when there’s an opportunity for you to reach your dreams, you run towards it even if you know you could fail. And that’s because you love yourself enough that any failure won’t bother you.
3) It makes you love better
Having poor self-esteem will slowly destroy even the most perfect of relationships—yes, it doesn’t matter even if you’re soulmates.
The reason is simple. If you have a horrible, lowly view of yourself then you will be incredibly insecure, oversensitive, and jealous.
It might feel tempting to get into a relationship with someone because they make you feel loved, and a lot of people think that’s what love is all about.
But this is just one of many misconceptions we have about love that, simply put, cheapens and sabotages the relationships we get into.
The renowned shaman Rudá Iandê goes on to talk about this and other misconceptions about love and intimacy in his mind-blowing free video.
Looking for love when you have self-esteem issues is like gorging on candies in hopes of getting by on an empty stomach—you’ll not only end up not enjoying the candies, you’ll give yourself diabetes, too.
4) You know you don’t have to prove anything
It’s easier to ignore the need to prove yourself when you know your worth. It might not eliminate it entirely, but will fall so quiet you can just ignore it.
You know your worth, so when you try doing something, it’s not because you have to “prove” something to others—it’s because you want to try it and enjoy the process of learning, failing, and succeeding.
And if others try to make you feel bad about not achieving anything grand yet, you pay them little mind. You know that they’re just probably doing it because they’re insecure themselves anyways.
You know you’re worthy even without the accomplishments, and that one day you’ll get there, anyway.
5) You’re easier on others
You might be surprised to know that the people who are especially cruel towards others or like tearing them down are people with severe self-esteem issues.
They have issues with their self-image, so they try to “prove” their own self-worth by dragging other people below them.
People who are genuinely confident, on the other hand, have no such problems. In fact, they’d celebrate it when they see other people become better than them. They’d also encourage people to pursue their passions even if they seem impossible.
That’s why having good self-esteem will help not just you, but the people around you.
Instead of being that kind of person who keeps tearing other people down or controlling them, you instead become someone who would build people up.
6) People can be honest to you
People with low self-esteem are defensive. They see everything as an attack as if everyone who doesn’t agree with them is against them.
If you have healthy self-esteem, you see others’ opinions and advice as nothing more than that—someone’s opinion or advice. You can detach yourself from your ego and think “Well, maybe what they’re saying is right…”
You don’t try to look for ways to prove them wrong because you already know they could be wrong…but also that you’re not perfect.
You know that there’s always room for improvement, and it’s possible you can get guidance from people who are honest with you.
And this kind of thinking will lead to more growth. And of course, better relationships.
7) You’ll be able to set clear boundaries
People who have self-esteem issues often don’t know how to set their own boundaries. How could they, if they think they’re not worthy?
So when someone treats them badly or oversteps their bounds, they would go “this is what I deserve” or “I don’t like it, but it’s not like I’m worth fighting for.”
But when you know your worth and value yourself—that is, you have good self-esteem—you are more capable of discerning when you simply aren’t being treated right.
Abuse and manipulation become easier to spot, and rather than ignoring the red flags popping up your way you’re much more inclined to set and enforce your boundaries. This includes cutting off people who, simply put, do not deserve your presence in their lives.
8) You’ll live a fearless life
The good thing about loving and accepting yourself no matter what is that you’ll be a much bolder and courageous person.
When you accept that you’re imperfect and that it’s perfectly okay to be imperfect, it’s easier not to take failure personally.
Rather than specters waiting to drag your confidence through the gutter, failures instead become opportunities to learn and become better.
And this means you will have less trouble with trying out new things. This will result in you collecting new experiences in every aspect of your life from your relationships, hobbies, to your career.
That is to say, you won’t just sit around existing—you’ll actually be living your life fully.
9) You’ll have less f*cks to give
If you have a healthy self-esteem, you can better discern between useful advice and noise.
And this is important because— let’s face it— a lot of people say useless things disguised as “advice.”
Things like your nosey parents saying that you should be in a relationship now or get married so that they’ll have grandkids, or how your closed-minded neighbor says your tattoo makes you look like a drug addict.
With good self-esteem comes the understanding that you don’t have to bend to other people’s desires.
Sure, you listen to what they say because they might be saying something sensible and helpful to you, but you know in what instances not to give a f*ck.
10) You’ll have the life that you truly want
Alright, not all of us get the life we truly want…but your odds increase dramatically just because you have a healthy self-esteem.
As mentioned, when you know your worth, it will be easier for you to make decisions for yourself.
You’re more aware of your strengths and weaknesses, and since you’re open to feedback, you keep improving yourself because you want it (and not because you want to prove anything!)
All of these things combined, along with the other benefits of having good self-esteem like having a good mindset, not being worried of what others think, and a lot more, can help you achieve almost anything you want in life.
If you think you’re too far away from the life you always dreamed of, then maybe it’s a good idea to start investigating how you see yourself.
It might be the thing that’s keeping you away from the life you’ve always wanted.
Last words
As you can see, self-esteem matters a lot.
And luckily, self-esteem isn’t something that’s set in stone.
Sure, it might not be easy to just change your thought patterns and mindset overnight, but with effort, you’ll eventually get there—you’ll eventually consider yourself worthy of good things.
All you have to do is to decide right now that you’ll love and value yourself, flaws and all.
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