I’m a strong supporter and promoter of self-love and recognizing your value and worth, but there is a fine line that exists between being admiringly confident and annoyingly cocky. In a world and society that loves to promote competition amongst individuals and in fact, profits off of self-doubt and insecurity, it is revolutionary to love yourself.
Is it possible to love yourself too much? I’d like to say not really, but the issues of narcissism and being vain can become prevalent if one loves themselves a little “too much.” You should love yourself in the right way; which, to me, means recognizing your own value, worth, capabilities, and talents. Being narcissistic or vain takes away from appreciating the value, worth, capabilities and talents from others. Love others too. Appreciating and recognizing the positive qualities of others does not, or should not, take away from your own value.
Confidence means believing in yourself; your talents and capabilities. It means being self-assured, and not depending on others to determine your value or worth. It means not necessarily believing you’re better than anyone else. Sure, everyone has their talents and what they’re good at, but being truly confident doesn’t require you to compare yourself to everyone around you. Constantly striving to be better than everyone and using others to compare yourself to is simply exhausting. Strive to be better than you were before; for yourself and not for anyone else. Of course, in competitive areas like sports you have to try to be better than others if you want to be the best, but life isn’t a sport. It’s not a competition. No one wins. We all end up in the ground eventually.
One of my favorite quotes is: “Live like you’re at the bottom even if you’re at the top.” In society today, it’s so easy to compare yourself to others when you’re constantly being exposed and sharing yourself online. With social media, we let people (strangers) into our thoughts, accomplishments, and personal lives on a daily basis. As human beings, we are made no worse or better than anyone else. We all have our talents and we all have our downfalls.
It’s important to remain humble despite how successful or amazing you may be. I assure you that you are amazing and you have so many talents and potential for what you can do in this world. It’s a good thing to believe in yourself! We can all be a little prideful from time to time, and it’s okay to take pride in the effort you’ve spent working towards something. It’s actually psychologically beneficial to be humble. Being cocky means you feel the need to prove and boast about yourself to others. Being confident means your actions and overall persona speaks for itself. Love yourself, love others. Recognize your worth and value without disregarding the worth and value of others. Recognize the worth and value of others without disregarding the worth and value of yourself.
