How can you improve your self-love and self-worth?

I liken self-love and self-worth to the architectural foundation of a structure. Foundations are designed to have an adequate load capacity. The stronger your foundational design is the more success load capacity it can bear.

Here’s a look at three practical ways to get started:

1. Become emotionally agile.

Cry a river, then build a bridge and get over it. I know it’s not always that simple, but it behooves you (in more ways than one) to find a way to forgive, learn and move on. To become effective at life you have to make a decision to master your emotions instead of being slave to them.

“Effective leaders don’t buy into or try to suppress their inner experiences. Instead they approach them in a mindful, values-driven, and productive way—developing what we call emotional agility. In our complex, fast-changing knowledge economy, this ability to manage one’s thoughts and feelings is essential to business success.” (HBR)

2. Remove “stress factor” people from your life.

Stress is subjective and totally under your control. Stop blaming others and take responsibility for your ability to change the scenery around you.

“Besides increasing your risk of heart disease, depression, and obesity, stress decreases your cognitive performance. Fortunately, though, unless a lion is chasing you, the bulk of your stress is subjective and under your control. Top performers have well-honed coping strategies that they employ under stressful circumstances.” (Forbes)

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“Most of the reason we don’t do things is because we’re afraid to fail. I just made a decision one day that I was not not going to do things in my life because of fear.” ― Sara Blakely

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Remove yourself from old-depleting ties. Declutter your associations and take a keen look at your relationships. For many people, it is people that hold them back, knowingly or unknowingly – which as a result creates a lot of stress and less success.

3. Take responsibility for your thoughts.

If your old or current thoughts serve you so well then I’d imagine you are exactly who, where and what you want to be (logically speaking). This is where you really do have to put your ego aside and consider, “Maybe my old thoughts won’t give me the new and brighter future I want?”

If you’re brave enough to be honest with yourself, then you’re on your way to cultivating a better life and business. These thoughts can be derived from your personal faith, collective wisdom, self development audioboks and the invaluable mentorship of people who are actually successful in the areas you are not.

Never rely solely on your buddies, or even professional peers, who can’t seem to get it together, for sage wisdom. Just because they’re your friend doesn’t mean they are doling out wise counsel. You can control your own thoughts. And you can’t live higher than your thoughts – it’s that simple.

Focus on what you can actually control – emotional agility, the people you surround yourself with, and your thoughts. As Steven Covey, author of The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, suggests, “Instead of reacting to or worrying about conditions over which they have little or no control, proactive people focus their time and energy on things they can control.”

When you make a quality decision to improve your self-esteem, and take the necessary steps to work on becoming a better version of yourself, success will eventually follow. Isn’t it time to start living at the level you know you are truly capable of?

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