How to Develop Respect for Yourself

The ability to respect yourself is as critical to personal emotional growth as it is to healthy, mutually-satisfying relationships with other people. And while positive, confidence-building interactions with family members, friends or other respected individuals often inspire it, one may also build respect for oneself from within.

Instructions

• 1

  Realize that you have intrinsic value as a person. Your value isn't based on how smart or popular or attractive you are or on how much you've accomplished. Neither is it dependent on other people's opinions of you. You have value simply because you are you.

• 2

  Accept yourself, shortcomings and all. This doesn't mean that you embrace your weaknesses or make excuses for them. It simply means that you give yourself a break; you allow yourself the freedom to be human. When you respect yourself, you face up to your weaknesses without self-criticism, which helps you focus on gradually replacing those weaknesses with strengths.

• 3

  Forgive yourself for mistakes. Everyone makes them. Revist your past errors only long enough to face them, make peace with them, make amends, if needed and then move on.

• 4

  Appreciate your skills, abilities and talents. While your value as a person isn't dependent on your abilities, enjoy them and let them give your life an added dimension.

• 5

  Focus on the positive. This will help you have more positive feelings about other people as well as yourself. Pay more attention to the positive, affirming things that people say rather than the negatives.

• 6

  Create a nurturing inner environment in which you can grow and prosper emotionally. Give yourself a pep talk every day, reminding yourself of your worth. Take note of everything you've accomplished and recognize the progress you've made toward your goal of developing greater self-respect. Be philosophical about setbacks.

• 7

  Begin making the positive changes that will help you become the person you want to be. Working on self-improvement is a sign of emotional stability. As you incorporate these steps into your daily life, you should experience an increasing level of self-respect and a decreasing level of stress.