We’re all born with a certain level of respect for ourselves. The trouble is that life can knock you down and beat it out of you, forcing you to lose your value for yourself. You can so easily forget your own worth and view yourself as nothing.
Thinking like that is an awful way to live. Once you remember your worth, your world will change for the better and you’ll start to do things that you never thought you’d do. Here are 17 things you start doing when you gain back your self-respect.
1. Putting Yourself First
Self-care is important to you now. You’ve begun to understand just how important it is to look after your own needs first.
2. Not Explaining Yourself to Anyone
You don’t owe anyone an explanation on how you live your life. As long as you’re not hurting anyone, you can keep living how you want to without anyone’s approval.
3. Avoiding Negativity
Negative people, negative discussions, negative spaces, all are things that you’re staying the hell away from. You don’t need that in your life and you’re not going to put yourself through it.
4. Taking Time For Yourself
You need time to be alone with your thoughts or to just do your own thing. You don’t owe your time to anyone else but yourself. Even if you just need 5 minutes of quiet away from the world, you’ll take it.
5. Cutting Out Toxic People
You won’t feel guilty for cutting them out either. People who treat you like sh*t and are only interested in themselves don’t deserve to be a part of your life.
6. Changing Your Opinions
People grow and change. Instead of clinging on to the ideals of your younger self, you let your opinions change as you do. You don’t care whether people agree with you or not, you just want to think for yourself.
7. Not Accepting Empty Apologies
If someone says sorry but doesn’t do anything to change their behavior, then you won’t put up with it. That’s not a real apology and it’s definitely not something that you need to pretend to believe.
8. Saying “No” When You Mean it
No means no, and you won’t let someone convince you otherwise. You’ve set strict boundaries and will not tolerate someone trying to push them.
9. Not Caring if People Dislike You
Some people will never like you, and that’s fine. It’s a waste of your time and energy trying to get everyone to like you so you’re not taking any part in it.
10. Doing Things Just Because You Want to
You can do fun or creative things without the fear of judgment from other people. If it makes you happy then why should you care what they think about it?
11. Dressing How You Want
Other people do not have a say on how you present yourself. You’ll wear what you want, put on makeup or leave it off, and style your hair how you want to.
12. Forgetting Your Ex
So you thought about them once in a while, but once you start to respect yourself, you realize that they aren’t worth your time. The past is in the past and you want to leave it there where it belongs.
13. Staying Out of Arguments
Some people love the rush that arguing gives them, but it’s a negative kind of rush based on anger. You’d much rather stay out of it when you know that someone is just arguing for the sake of it.
14. Not Prioritizing People That Don’t Respect You
Your time is much better spent on the people that really care about you. If someone doesn’t show you the respect that you deserve then you sure as hell won’t bend to their will just because they want you to.
15. Living the Life You Want to Live
You’ve only got one shot at life and you’re going to make it count. It doesn’t matter if the path that you choose isn’t the safest or the most obvious. You’ll live exactly how you want to.
16. Accepting Your Flaws
It’s not just about accepting them, it’s about loving them too. Who has the right to tell you what’s flawed anyway? If you have a big nose, you’re short, or you’re curvier than some people, why should you have to dislike those parts of yourself?
17. Falling in Love With Yourself
You’re your own best friend and you don’t need anyone else to love you. After all this time, you’ve learned to love yourself unconditionally.
Respecting yourself is one of the most important things that you can ever do. It can take time to learn it again after life has shut you down. Once you do though, you’ll have a whole new take on life.
Share this article with your friends and family to show them how much better life is when you learn to respect yourself again.