Knowing your worth is essential for your happiness and success in life. From the time that we’re born, society conditions us to believe our worth is tied to achievements like level of education, relationship status, net worth, physical appearance, and more. But as people, we’re much deeper than just our accomplishments.
Clinical mental health counselor Kendra Surmitis says, “To know your worth is to believe in your intrinsic value as a human being, and to know that you are worthy of respect and acceptance from others.” Psychotherapist Tameka Brewington adds that people who know their worth are clear about how they show up in the world—they don’t base their worth on what society says or believes about them.
According to the experts, here’s why it’s important to know your worth, how it impacts us in the workplace, and seven ways we can improve on knowing (and showing) our self-worth.
Why it’s important to know your worth
Surmitis says, “When an individual knows their worth, they have an impenetrable sense of being valuable and good enough, and therefore, when mistakes are made and hardships are encountered, they can sustain a sense of being innately worthy of respect.”
Plus, self-worth is directly tied to self-esteem. Brewington says, “A person with low self-esteem has a distorted view of themselves and how others perceive them. Their self-worth and value is diminished based on feeling less than or not enough.”
On the other hand, people who believe that they have worth and value are more likely to perceive their own attributes, accomplishments, and qualities positively. “Self-worth and self-esteem are essential ingredients for robust mental health, and together, they bolster important skills such as self-advocacy and continued striving for fulfillment,” says Surmitis.
It’s also important to know your worth so you aren’t basing your happiness on how others feel or what they say about you, Brewington says. For example, people who don’t know their worth attempt to seek happiness solely through people-pleasing. However, they end up spending all of their time and energy “doing” and “being” for others, and their own happiness begins to suffer without them knowing why. True happiness comes from within first, then extends to others.
