This Is The Difference Between Self-Esteem And Self-Worth

Picture yourself doing the very thing you know you’re meant to do.

What has stopped you from reaching that point? What has stopped you from making choices today that positively affect your tomorrow?

Most people hold onto limiting beliefs like it’s their job. It’s sort of human nature, in a way. We often find ourselves doing the safest thing simply for our own survival. Maybe you had an academic adviser in school that instilled this cloud of fear over you. Maybe you grew up in a home where your parents didn’t believe in you or had their own limiting beliefs that began to shape your own. Maybe you are so paralyzed by these fears that you now have your own limiting beliefs as to what you can do in life.

Stop believing those lies. Start believing in you. Life is not a straightforward path (at least for most of us). There are so many twists and turns that can scare us if we let them. Your power comes in recognizing the power you have to navigate those forks in the road.

This power comes from your own self-worth.

Self-esteem and self-worth are not one in the same.

Self-esteem is feeling good about yourself. Self worth is a deep knowing that you are valuable.

Self-esteem is fluid when we compare ourselves (inevitably) to everyone else. Self-worth is seeing what everyone else is doing, feeling happy for them, and knowing that your grass is just as green and your sense of self is unwavering.

Self-esteem can be easily shut down when we get rejected by a lover, friend, or family member. Self-worth is recognizing that not everything lasts forever, and there is nothing wrong with you when someone chooses to leave.

Self-esteem is something that you can build by trying to get better at this or that. Self-worth is being able working on those goals but not doubting yourself when a setback occurs.

Self-esteem is what you think and feel about yourself. Self-worth is recognizing that “I am greater than all of those things.”

Read that again. And again. And a thousand times until you truly feel it for yourself. It is so sad that in our generation, we are plagued with constant reminders of what we are not. We have endless opportunities to look at a digital representation of a moment in someone else’s life that looks a bit sunnier than the moment we might be experiencing now. But the power is in your hands to decide how you want to feel about yourself. About this moment. About this season in your life. You decide. And you decide by recognizing that you have meaning and value outside of any of those things you use to define yourself.