Over the last few years, I have realized how important it is to be proud of myself. I used to assume that people who are proud of themselves do not have respect for their peers.
I used to think proud people are those unapproachable, uncouth fellows who have little regard for whatever doesn’t concern them.
When I realized that people could be proud of themselves without displaying those negative traits I mentioned above, I began to see self-pride as a beautiful thing.
This article will show you how to be proud of yourself and highlight strong key points to drive the message home. Read along!
What Does It Mean To Be Proud Of Yourself?
Self-pride is the amount of value, respect, and admiration a person places upon themselves. In understanding how to be proud of yourself, you should know that self-pride and self-esteem are extremely important.
Self-pride is an important factor because it can get you more motivated to do things and achieve them. It functions as a motivational system that enables individuals to love themselves more, take care of themselves, and push themselves to accomplish their goals.
People who are not proud of themselves may show signs of giving up in achieving their goals. They often see themselves as below other people in society or who are not worthy of living a happier lifestyle.
Even though such people have similar objectives with those who are proud of themselves, they generally lack the motivation to push themselves to the point of success.
If you naturally don’t know how to be proud of yourself, it may be a bit difficult to understand what self-pride means.
However, when you start taking pleasure in your actions and the things you have achieved, you will have a grasp of what it feels like to be proud of yourself.
How Can I Be Proud Of Myself When No One Else Is?
Sometimes, you feel like you have done something great that deserves other people’s applause. You may get disappointed when nobody compliments you for achieving something you consider a success.
When this happens, it doesn’t mean that you haven’t done enough to get recognition from people. It simply means that they fail to see how much such accomplishment means to you. They probably do not realize how much motivation, effort, and time you put in to achieve that feat.
When no one seems to be proud of you, you must learn to be proud of yourself. You must show yourself the appreciation you deserve and give yourself that applause.
In learning how to be proud of yourself when no one else is, always remember that you are good enough and doing the best you can.
Never wait for people to validate your efforts before you pat yourself on the back. Instead, keep doing your best and continue to encourage yourself as you make progress — no matter how little.
Finally, when you realize no one seems to be proud of you, show them that you are good enough. Whenever you have the opportunity, prove your worth. Let them see that you deserve to be commended for your efforts and dedication.
How Can I Feel More Proud Of Myself?
Knowing how to be proud of yourself is one of the best ways of living a happier life. Sometimes, we seek validation from other people to confirm whether we are doing fine in our lives. While it’s a beautiful thing to receive compliments from people, it is not entirely necessary.
The best way to become a more confident, assertive, and focused individual is to take pride in what you have achieved in your life — no matter how little.
You must know that being proud of yourself isn’t a bad idea. Rather, it’s a way of cheering yourself on. Here are ten important ways you can figure out how to be proud of yourself:
1. Appreciate The Little Things You Do
Be your cheerleader. Appreciate your small wins because they will motivate you to achieve bigger ones. If you are always complaining about how your achievements come in small packages, you are not preparing your mind for bigger ones.
For example, when you decide to start exercising daily to improve your health, do not complain about being too lazy to do certain regimens.
Instead, be proud that you have taken that bold step to wake up every morning and do something that would benefit you in the long term.
Appreciate that you are willing to go to the gym each day and make an effort. Never complain about your limitations because as time goes on, you will eventually begin to adapt — no matter how slow the process is.
A particular lady I met at the gym a couple of years ago shared her story with whoever cared to listen. So naturally, I paid attention to what she was saying. She said she was obese just a few years ago and thought she would die due to her condition.
One morning, while looking through the window, she saw a plus-sized woman jugging across the street. One thing that piqued her interest in the woman was how she made intermittent stops but looked determined to complete her exercise.
While thinking about the woman’s determination, she thought about herself. There and then, she decided she would never let her condition get the best of her.
After following strict dieting guidelines for a few months, she felt fit enough to hit the streets, and she did. Later, she decided to enroll in a gym. Few weeks after enrolment, she felt she was making little progress and wanted to quit.
However, one thing kept motivating her: the woman she saw through the window didn’t quit. She began to appreciate the little efforts she was putting into saving her health.
After a few months at the gym, she had become so attached that she was always coming around. As a result, she had lost considerable amounts of weight too!
I watched her share her story with so much pride on her face. She was proud of herself and grateful that instead of quitting, she began to appreciate the little efforts she made.
2. Pursue And Invest In Your Passion
Chase your dreams. When you do so, things will eventually fall into place for you.
You will become proud of yourself when you notice your progress because you decided to pursue your dreams. Nothing gives a greater feeling than setting objectives and achieving them.
Great, talented people aren’t just great because they are talented. They are great because they invested so much time trying to perfect what they are passionate about.
Portuguese football megastar, Cristiano Ronaldo, is considered the greatest sportsman in history because of his dedication and passion towards his goals.
Although he is one of the most talented footballers globally, his hard work and dedication have set him apart from his peers.
He is notable for being a fitness enthusiast and passionate sportsman. Whenever he gets on an interview, he talks about himself with so much pride and enthusiasm because he is proud of his numerous achievements and the amount of time he invests in keeping fit.
If you are motivated enough to set achievable goals, be sure that you will be proud of yourself when you eventually start seeing positive results.
3. Learn To Grow From Your Previous Mistakes
Growth is significant in all aspects of life. You can only become better and greater when you experience steady growth.
If you’re struggling to understand how to be proud of yourself, you should always remember that you must grow. It’s one way to be proud of yourself.
In life, people make mistakes. While some may never forgive themselves for such mistakes, others will grow and use the experience to build themselves. Learning how to grow from your previous mistakes will not only make you better but prouder.
Thomas Edison would never have invented the light bulb if he had decided to stop experimenting after making hundreds of mistakes.
Instead, he allowed himself to make progress from each mistake he made, which eventually led to creating one of the greatest inventions in history.
4. Have A Strong Survival Instinct
In Biology classes, we were often told that only the most adaptive and organisms that are ready to change will survive according to Darwin’s law of natural selection. This applies to almost all aspects of life.
People who have strong survival instincts will almost always scale through challenging experiences. When you show enough resilience and tenacity to get over bad times, you will eventually become proud of yourself.
You must have that will and drive to face whatever challenge life brings you. You must also have a positive mindset that you will overcome your challenges. When you overcome life’s hurdles, you feel more confident and prouder about your achievements.
5. Know Your Strengths And Focus On Them
In learning how to be proud of yourself, you must understand that you know yourself better than anyone else. Therefore it will do you more good if you realize what your strengths and weaknesses are.
Sometimes, people may tell you that you are not good at what you do. Of course, such statements will make you feel bad. However, they are often indicators to help you reevaluate your abilities.
How often do you ask yourself if you are good enough to perform certain tasks? If you think you are good enough, what are your strengths and weaknesses? What are the things you need to do to improve yourself?
Knowing your strengths and putting much effort into improving them will eventually yield results. When you begin to notice the steady progress, you will feel so proud of yourself because you realized what your strengths are and focused on them.
6. Leave Your Comfort Zone And Learn To Take Risks
Sometimes, one of the reasons why some people fail to progress is because they do not want to leave their comfort zones.
Even when they feel the need to change, they find it extremely difficult because they are comfortable with their current situation.
It is tough to decide between leaving a position that you find most comfortable. What makes it even harder is when you think about the changes that would happen in your life after switching.
You may become afraid of taking risks. However, you must realize that taking risks is a part of life, and many people have had their fortunes changed forever by taking a bold step towards change.
In my mid-twenties, I became good friends with a guy who had great potentials but was too afraid to take risks. He lived with his parents, and each day, he would tell me how he felt this burning desire to leave his parent’s house and start his own life.
However, he just couldn’t leave. He was too afraid to do so. He said he didn’t know what would happen if he left his parents.
Interestingly, he wasn’t contributing anything to the family financially. He felt bad about that. He said he has the desire to leave so he could start a life elsewhere and support him, family.
Yet, he wouldn’t take the risk. Eventually, he left home, and within two years, he had done so well that he got himself an apartment and started giving financial assistance to his loved ones.
He would always tell me how grateful he was for taking that risk. I told him he should be proud of himself, and of course, he is!
7. Be Grateful For Your Unique Talents Or Skills
Gratitude is a beautiful thing. In learning how to be proud of yourself, you must be grateful for everything you have — especially your unique talents and skills.
In life, everyone has that unique ability that gives them an edge over others. You may never have won the employee of the month at the office, but you could be winning the hearts of employers because of your all-around lifestyle at the workplace.
You are probably the go-to guy when a basic or complicated issue has to be solved. This may set you apart from your colleagues and have people respect you so much.
You must also realize that you have flaws (everyone else does) and should be willing to improve on them.
Nevertheless, be grateful for your strengths and the things that set you apart from your peers. Be proud that you possess such unique skills.
8. Be Resilient In Every Situation
Resilience and tenacity are essential. Not giving up when everything seems to be falling can make you proud of yourself when things finally get better.
No matter what you are currently facing, don’t give up easily. Always draw positives from your past experiences and how you were able to overcome them. You can also fetch inspiration from the people around you or great leaders in history.
The greatest people whose names will be remembered forever are those that never gave up on life easily, those who fought harder and showed resilience in every situation—being resilient can teach you how to be proud of yourself.
9. No Matter The Situation, Keep Believing In Your Dreams
Don’t throw your dreams away because of your current setbacks. Everyone — at one point or another — will most likely face tough challenges in life.
However, letting your belief system drown because of a bad situation is not advisable. You can only be proud of yourself when you achieve your goals or realize your dreams. If you fail to keep dreaming, you are letting yourself down.
Therefore, always keep your head up high and believe you can achieve great things — no matter the situation.
10. Build A Strong Network Of Friendship and Support
Connect with people because in our world today, connection matters so much.
When you connect with the right people and build a strong friendship network, you will always get the necessary support from people. You will become proud of your support system and be grateful you made strong connections.
Also, you must be willing to support the growth of others. It’s a great feeling to see that people, why you helped grow, are doing great things with their lives. It gives you a sense of pride and everlasting happiness.
You will understand what it means to be proud of yourself when you have people who support you and those who you support.
Is It Wrong To Be Proud Of Yourself?
Self-pride often comes in two forms;
- Negative self-pride
- Positive self-pride
Sometimes when people say things about someone being proud of themselves, they often talk about the negative one. As a result, many people do not even realize that positive self-pride is a thing.
Positive self-pride is the kind of pride you have over your personality, achievements, and successes. This kind of pride is healthy because you are not comparing your achievements with others but simply applauding yourself for your successes.
Negative self-pride, on the other hand, is detrimental and unhealthy. It is the kind of pride you have over your achievements and other people’s achievements.
Here, you compare yourself with others in an attempt to ridicule their successes. Unfortunately, in doing so, you tend to undervalue other people’s abilities and raise your ego so high that you think you’re better than the others.
Negative pride often comes with the failure to understand that success may not last forever, and you could experience setbacks.
That said, there is nothing wrong with being proud of yourself. Self-pride — in a positive sense — is important for your personal growth and progress.
Be confident about who you are, and always shower yourself with praises. However, you must first learn how to be proud of yourself before others can be proud of you. Be proud of the individual you have become and appreciate all the efforts you put in daily.
Take pride in the slow but steady growth you are experiencing. Until you get to the point where you can celebrate your achievements, always be careful about your decisions.
Never look down on others as you journey to the top. Never compare your growth or progress with others. Be humble and diligent. Humility will take you to greater heights.
Take pride in your strengths and weaknesses and work hard to improve on them. Always say positive things to yourself that will enhance your level of confidence.
You should also note that some people cannot tell the differences between negative self-pride and positive self-pride. When they see that you are happy with yourself, they quickly label you as “proud.” Never let such people bring you down. Always encourage yourself to be happy and diligent.
What Should I Be Proud Of In Life?
You can enhance your self-pride if you want to grow in strength and confidence. All you need to do is start feeding your mindset with positive stuff.
These positive things will help boost your self-confidence, which in turn will get you motivated to accomplish your goals.
First, you must pursue your dreams, and secondly, you must acknowledge your accomplishments thus far. Having things that you can be proud of can give you a lot of reasons why you should be proud of yourself.
Sometimes, even the most accomplished individuals fail to be proud of the things they have achieved. This is because they often see some of their achievements as inconsequential. When you begin to assume that your achievements are just ordinary things, you may lack the motivation to achieve more.
Hence you must start looking around you and appreciate the little things you are happy about. You can create a list of things that make you feel happy and reflect on them daily.
You can also set achievable goals and celebrate yourself when you accomplish them. Below are a few things about your life that you can be proud of:
- Your attitude towards your goals
- Your ability to interact with others
- The confidence with which you approach certain tasks
- The lessons life has taught you
- Your self-esteem
- Your desire to stand up for others when need be
- The recognitions you have received in the past
- Everything you have accomplished
- The amount of time and effort you put into work
- Your courage and determination
- The decisions you have made
- Your health and lifestyle
- The investments you have made
- Your social interactions
- Your friends and family
How Can I Be Proud Of My Accomplishments?
As humans, it is our nature to be inquisitive and question certain things in our lives. Sometimes, we go as far as questioning our achievements and successes. This is probably because we are not proud of the things we have achieved.
You are a step away from understanding how to be proud of yourself when you start taking pride in your achievements.
However, having it in mind that you have achieved a lot of things and accomplished some of your goals can be important in leaving a fulfilled life. Such acts also help boost your self-esteem and confidence.
Personal accomplishments can mean different things to different people. While an individual may be proud of the material things he has acquired, another person’s pride may come from the realization that she has successfully read ten books in six months. Therefore, our accomplishments are relative.
Nevertheless, we have to be proud of what we have achieved. Below are three important reasons you should be proud of your accomplishments:
A. It’s Not So Easy To Set Goals And Accomplish Them
No matter how achievable your goals are, always have it at the back of your mind that it isn’t so easy to plan and execute them.
The decision to work towards it alone is an act that requires a lot of motivation. Many people have made plans to achieve certain things within a timeframe without never achieving them. Most times, it’s because they failed to act.
It says so much about your personality and confidence level when you decide to execute a task and achieve it. Therefore no matter how ordinary you consider your accomplishments, ensure you take pride in achieving them.
B. You Could Be An Inspiration To Others
When you set out to do something, people may be watching you. Someone may be following your steps and hoping to do great like you. So, when you eventually accomplish a task, take pride in it.
Celebrate your accomplishment in the modest way you can. You may not know, but you could be inspiring the kid next door.
C. You Will Be Willing To Achieve More
You will be motivated to do more when you are proud of your accomplishments. As a result, you will experience a strong desire to achieve greater things and become more successful.
Is Being Proud A Bad Thing?
There’s nothing wrong with displaying a healthy dose of positive self-pride. However, pride becomes a bad thing when you start comparing your accomplishments with others.
Always motivate yourself to be better than the individual you were in the past. Never have pride over your peers because you seem to be doing better than them.
To meet and interact with a lot of people who are proud of themselves like you, join wonderful platforms like Little Step, Big Miles on Facebook and Instagram. You will find encouragement and support from random people who are proud of their successes in life.
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