GO Month: Mental Clutter - U

Let's celebrate Get Organized (GO) Month by ridding ourselves of mental clutter.

To celebrate Get Organized (GO) Month I'm doing a series of posts on the mental clutter that can be just as pervasive as physical clutter. For each letter, I'll talk about a mental stumbling block that often impacts our well-being.

Let's focus on U ... Undervaluing Yourself

In this day and age, many of us look to measure our own self-worth using the yardstick of someone else. We keep comparing ourselves to others instead of honoring our own inherent value.

When assessing your value you need to take into consideration that you and only YOU need to be held in the highest regard. If you don't value who you are or see enough worth in yourself you're less likely to succeed in all facets of your life.

When you undervalue yourself it costs you personally as you start to depend on assurances and confidence from others. It costs you financially as research has found a correlation between self-esteem and how much money people make. It costs you mentally as poor self-worth doesn't make you as strong as you can be and plagues you with depression and anxiety. It can also cost you physically as the worse you feel about yourself the worse you end up feeling via pain, tiredness, and discomfort.

Ways to combat undervaluing ourselves include:

• Remember the unseen variables when you start comparing yourself on page 2 to someone else's page 300

• When someone gives you a compliment, genuinely accept it instead of thinking about whether or not you deserve it

• Avoid sunshiney self-help mantras (I'm lovable!) as it actually makes you feel worse (especially if you already have low self-esteem) and instead confront your feelings head-on

• Focus less on striving for perfection and more on making one good decision at a time

• Ask for what you need when you need it (a therapist, a day off, a kid-free evening)

"Too many people overvalue what they are NOT and undervalue what they ARE."

Malcolm Forbes

Here's to freeing ourselves from the mental clutter of undervaluing ourselves!

Please share with someone who needs a clearer mindset.

featured image by Free-Photos from Pixabay