You’re doing amazing, Wow! You’re so good at everything, No one does it like you!
Do these sound like statements that would make you happy? I mean, let’s be honest, we’d all love to hear these more than often! Compliments. They make us feel validated, appreciated, understood, and overall, happy. Or do they? Have compliments encouraged you to do more, or have they just made you seek validation from other people every time you do something? Have they made you follow your passions more, or have they made you feel like your passions aren’t worthy unless you are complimented?
Oftentimes, we unconsciously align our self-worth with people’s validation. Take it from me. For pretty much all of my life, I wanted people to appreciate everything I did. Who wouldn’t? And initially, hearing compliments and positive comments was great. I felt amazing, literally. But after a while, I didn’t receive compliments as much as I did before. Why? Does that mean I was no longer worth it? Was no one proud of me anymore? These thoughts lingered in my mind, and I felt unheard and undeserving. And that’s the problem. I had aligned my self-worth with validation from people. When I didn’t receive that validation from people, I felt like I wasn’t worth it. Perhaps you might feel this way too! You might be seeking validation without realizing it, and honestly, I don’t blame you. Having other people appreciate and compliment you can definitely feel awesome. But I don’t want you to take that as a measure of your self-worth. We humans, we’re crazy beings. We have opinions, ideas, hopes, desires, and so many things inside us. We are intelligent, hard-working, and each of us is a unique individual with so much to offer the world and people around us. So why should we rely on someone else to determine our worth? I want you to remember: You’re worth so much more than you think and what people around you think. Only you can validate yourself!
Sources: cover photo by Joshua Woroniecki on Unsplash
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