Think of all the negative things you say to yourself on a daily basis. Do you remind yourself that you need to lose weight every time you look in the mirror? Or maybe you call yourself stupid when you don’t do as well as you wanted to on a test or an assignment. We put ourselves down so often that it has become a normal thing that no one even questions. When did it become okay for you to think so negatively of yourself?

Why are we hard on ourselves?

Do you ever find yourself comparing your qualities to ones of your peers? Do you get genuinely happy for others when they succeed in areas where you may not? This contributes to the problem of how hard we are on ourselves. We want the best, and we will work as hard as we can in order to succeed. We strive for excellence, but sometimes we push ourselves too hard and fall short. Seeing someone else be able to do something or be something that you can’t is frustrating, and you begin to lower your own worth as you compare yourself to those around you.

How does this affect us?

It is hard to remember all of your amazing qualities when you focus only on the areas where you fall short. Reminding yourself of your failures often isn’t healthy. It begins to affect how you see the world around you. When you think negatively of yourself, it’s hard to be happy for anyone else. It’s hard to imagine that some people are working to stop thinking to build their self-esteem and finally become happy with who they are. You may get jealous of others when they succeed and even wish you could be somebody else. This is no way to live your life to its fullest potential. When all you do is focus on the negatives, your best qualities will never shine through.

Remember your worth

Embrace these three facts: you are never going to be perfect. Nobody is perfect, and we all fall short sometimes. These are all parts of life. We wouldn’t be human if we didn’t make mistakes. With that being said, remember all that you are worth. Seek out those amazing qualities you hold-- we all have them. Embrace them once you find out what they are. Having a more positive self-image doesn’t mean you won't have areas in which you want to improve, but it does mean that you should still think highly of yourself, even when things don’t go according to plan. Don’t fill your head with negative thoughts that weigh you down. It makes it hard to understand the world when others around you are uplifting themselves toward the sky while you’re stuck the one stuck on the ground. When you uplift yourself, you’ll accomplish more than you even knew was possible thanks to your new positive outlook. Don’t think negatively of yourself, because no matter how many mistakes you may make, you deserve more than that.