What is the Difference Between Self Awareness, Self-Esteem, Self-Concept, and Self Worth?
Self-awareness is paramount. The degree of your self-awareness will determine how much other people will come to know and trust you. I’s not just about becoming completely secure in who you are.
In life, most people define themselves by what they do, and what they believe. They believe that this is who they are. This isn’t an authentic and true self-concept. And when someone isn’t 100% secure in who they are, they’re going to be looking for factors, situations, materialistic stuff, or even money as a means to source their security from.
Most people don’t even actually know who they are.
Self-awareness isn’t just about reaching a stage of being aware of who we are ‘being’ in the world, in relation to other people. Rather it’s what’s actually going on inside us. We have one world happening inside of us, and another world happening outside of us.
Our emotions are a response to something that’s happening in the outside world. It’s an internal response to an external problem.
As human beings we are individually responsible for our own lives and the way we choose to conduct ourselves.
We have absolutely no control over anything that happens outside of ourselves.
We are always up against the world going on inside our mind, and the worlds that other people have going on inside of their minds.
So if we become aware of the world we have going on inside of our own mind, then we’re halfway to overcoming ourselves.
Self-Esteem is simply how we feel about ourselves. It’s about whether we hold ourselves in high regard or low regard, based on the beliefs that we have about who we are. If we have a limiting belief that we’re not enough in some way, then it’s always going to prevent us from moving forward in life.
Self-esteem isn’t the problem. Self-worth is. Self-worth stems from our Self-Concept.
Self-worth is based upon the value we place upon ourselves. All positive traits are alive at some point inside all people. But because of the beliefs that some people have about who they are, they’ll often choose not to show and present these positive traits to the world. They have low self-worth and place little value on themselves.
Self-Concept is who we know ourselves to be. Who it is that we are working towards becoming. It’s our ideal and best possible version of ourselves.
Because people are criticized and judged, they develop self-worth issues and unrealistic self-concepts.
If someone defines themselves as “fat”, 20 years down the road they will still most likely be overweight.
Self-worth comes first, and self-esteem comes second. Our self-worth is based on our self-concept. If we’re not self-aware, we fall into the trap of having our emotions rule us. And if you’re not mastering your emotions, your emotions will rule you.
Authenticity is possible for those who have become completely self-aware and secure in who they are.
Developing Self-Awareness
In order to start developing self-awareness, it’s important to understand where your emotions come from.
When someone says something to you that sparks an emotion in you- it has nothing to do with the other person. You are responsible for you and your emotions, and they are responsible for themselves and theirs.
No one can make you feel a certain way. You choose to respond to the words you are hearing.
When we are able to control ourselves emotionally, it sets us up on a pedestal of influence. Only then are we able to positively influence the lives of others.
