5 Personal Commitments that Will Build Your Self-Worth

You can enhance your self-worth by using personal commitments. This is a necessary skill because low self-worth is a common concern and people always seem to be looking for how to build more self-worth. Do I need more self-care? How can I be nicer to myself? Why am I so judgmental? I spent years looking for the secret to strong self-worth and though I'm still a work in progress, I've answered some of my questions. Here's what has helped me build my sense of self-worth.

Self-Worth Starts with a Personal Commitment

One thing I've noticed, both in my work as a therapist and in my personal mental health journey, is that building self-worth takes effort and personal commitment. It starts by making a promise to yourself to start showing up differently. For me, negative self-talk was a huge barrier to developing self-worth. How could I start loving myself more when I spoke so terribly to myself every day? Here are some of the personal commitments I made to myself at the beginning of my self-growth journey:

1. I will be mindful of my internal self-talk.
2. When I notice myself saying something self-critical, I will intervene and rephrase the thought.
3. I will strive to talk to myself the same way I talk to people I love.
4. I will be willing to accept compliments from others.
5. I will be intentional about affirming myself and expressing gratitude to myself every day.

Act as If You Feel Worthy Until You Do

After I made personal commitments regarding how to talk differently to myself, I needed to commit to behaving differently. We've all heard the old saying, "Fake it til you make it." Therapists sometimes use a phrase with a similar message; "Act as if, until."

The idea is to ask yourself, "What would I do if I felt worthy?" Then you ask yourself if you are willing to do that thing now. When I kept asking myself this question, I realized there were all sorts of things I would do differently if I had strong self-worth. I started doing those things, whether it was saying how I felt, setting a boundary, saying no to something I didn't want to do or permitting myself to say yes to something I did want to do. Eventually, all that acting as if started to stick and I began feeling truly worthy of the things I wanted in life.

Honoring my self-commitments and treating myself as a worthy person has made a huge difference in my self-image and overall happiness.

What are your personal commitments that build self-worth? Share your thoughts in the comments.