Love Yourself: A Prerequisite for Success
If you ask most people if they love themselves, the answer will be yes. But more often than not, this is not true. For most people, what they feel about themselves is conditional love.
If you care more about what others think of you than what you feel, or if your happiness solely depends on the approval of others, even when such approvals follow acts of compromise on your happiness, then you only love yourself conditionally.
When you genuinely love yourself, you accept yourself for who you are. You accept the fact that there are things about yourself that cannot be changed, and you come to terms with it. Your sense of self-esteem will no longer depend on what others think of you, but in your belief in your ability to take on life with all its challenges.
To find success in life, you need to love yourself. When you accept who you are, warts and all, you will be able to identify your passions. You become the best version of yourself only when you do things that put your soul on fire. You start to live passionately when you resolve to do things that align with your core essence.
Reasons Why Loving Yourself First is Crucial to Success in Life:
Reasons why loving yourself brings success and happiness and not the other way round:
1. Loving yourself helps you take charge of your life
You may be the type that gives in readily to pressure, and you get easily intimidated. You make choices to please others that you know you will regret.
It is also possible that you simply go through life by following the template that others have laid down for you without any thought as to what makes you happy.
It is time you understand the fact that you are the essential factor in your life. It is time you take firm control of your life. Taking control of your life means you understand that you have the right to choose how you will live your life. You only make choices that align with your happiness, aspirations and goals in life.
Taking control of your life also makes it easy to say no. Most people will say ‘yes’ to anything without considering how such a decision will impact their priorities. Saying ‘no’ helps you to avoid overcommitting and taking on responsibilities that will stress you and make you develop a negative perception of the world.
2. It will boost your self-esteem
Some people spend their whole life trying to avoid conflict. When they are challenged, they give in quickly, and they end up feeling disappointed in themselves.
If you learn to love yourself, you will shed the need to keep pleasing others at all costs. You will start to focus on standing up for yourself and letting go of people who derive joy in exploiting you. When you have a healthy self-respect, others will be compelled to respect you as well.
A sound sense of self-esteem will also eliminate the need to get the approval of others. When you love who you are, your confidence in yourself will come from within. You will be less concerned about the negative opinions of others, and you will focus on creating and walking your path.
Telling you to love yourself does not mean you should become a narcissist or a self-centered individual. Instead, it means you should remove the pressure to be everything the world around you wants you to be, and instead focus on what makes you happy.
When you love yourself, you celebrate your positive qualities, and you accept your flaws. This self-love is the path to a greater sense of self-esteem that leads to success. Only people who believe entirely in themselves can achieve great success in life.
3. You will be able to make decisions that are right for you
When we always try to please others and be accepted by others, it becomes almost impossible to make decisions that are best for our interests.
If you mostly derive your sense of self from what others think of you, you make career choices to please them, and you may make bad life-changing decisions because that is what others expect of you.
When you love yourself, you will only make decisions that improve the quality of your life.
You prioritize your happiness, your mental wellbeing, your goals, and your dreams.
You must be at home with the fact that not everyone will like the authentic you. Making the right choices for your life means you know that you will never get the approval and praise of everyone in your life.
When your focus shifts to your happiness, you will become more invested in your goals, and this will bring you much success and true happiness.
When you love who you are, your goals and passions will define you. Accomplishing your goals will become central to your plans, your goals become personal, and you will be extremely motivated to achieve them.