Learning to love yourself is one of the hardest goals to achieve. Insecurity, fearfulness, and doubt have been ignited beneath us for years, since the beginning of our educations and social lives. We have been torn down on the inside while being brought up in the world. We were taught that being number one wasn't important, that even the slowest can win the race.
Sorry, but that's not true.
In school, we were encouraged to achieve a perfect 4.0 no matter what the cost to our mental health was. We were trained to constantly run in life until pure exhaustion hit us, and then keep going, even if we were ready to crumple in agony. We were taught never to say to others what we wouldn't want said to us, yet we are still lashed out at for minor wrongdoings, even if we keep words of anger to ourselves. We are taught to be the best, despite the consequences it may have for us and others around us.
The best thing my father taught me was this: Someone is always going to be smarter than you. Someone else is always going to be better-looking than you. Someone will always try to bring you down. Someone else is always going to beat you to the punch. Someone is always going to be better at something than you. Guess what?
You have to deal with it.
You may not be number one in everything, but you are the best at being you. Someone else can never be you. They can imitate you or mock and belittle you, but they can never be you. This is why you must learn to love yourself. You must have confidence in knowing that your individuality and your strengths are better than you think they are. You must be confident without being cocky, and ferociously independent while still being kind. You need to learn how to love yourself because, at the end of the day, you are the only person you have to lean on when no one else is around.
It isn't going to happen right away, it isn't going to happen overnight, it may not happen for years. Loving yourself is part of a growing process, and no one said it was an easy one. There are countless obstacles you will have to overcome on the way to loving yourself, and the first one is going to be having full confidence in yourself. It may be difficult, but it is one of the most invaluable traits you can have. You are the most important person in your life to take care of. It is okay to be selfish when it's your self-worth and sense of being on the line. People are going to tear you down, but you have to remember that you're worth more than that.
I mean, as Beyonce said, "I don't like to gamble, but if there's one thing I'm willing to bet on, it's myself."
