There seems to be an emphasis on self-esteem in today's society. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, however, too often we forget the importance self-value (self-worth). Being able to recognize your own value is crucial, yet something that is overlooked. People constantly believe self-worth and self-esteem are the same, except they are not the same at all. Self-worth can be defined as, “the sense of one’s own value or worth as a person.” Whereas, self-esteem is, “the confidence in one’s own actions.” While both of these concepts are equally important, self-worth always seems to be overshadowed by self-esteem.

People always let one failure or even one person define them because there is too much emphasis on the worth of actions, rather than your own inherent value. If someone fails to get the job they wanted, the easy thing to do is give up. Some people believe that if you don’t get the first job that you wanted, that you’re not good enough for it. They let this failure define them instead of letting it entice them to work harder and prove to those people that doubted them wrong. Too often we take the easy road out, rather than recognizing their own self-worth to fuel their fire and turn their failure into a life lesson.

Other times we let the opinion of others delineate ourselves. We let their opinions eat away at us and eventually let it characterize us, however, we cannot do this. Throughout our lives there will always be people there to tell you you are not good enough, smart enough, athletic enough, artistic enough. They will tell you your dreams are too big achieve your goals. This is where believing in your own self-worth comes into play. We have to believe and understand the value of ourselves and believe in what we can do in order to prove all the doubters wrong. Self-worth is something that seems to be too difficult for people to conceptualize nowadays, but is something that every person needs to understand in order to be physically, spiritually and mentally happy. Self-worth is simply a concept that we, as humans, must trust in order to believe in ourselves, no matter the obstacle.

We, as people, need to understand our own intrinsic value and not judge ourselves based off of our own actions or achievements. Too many times we rate ourselves based off of the plaques, medals, grades, GPAs and awards we receive, and because of this, we disregard our own self-worth. Self-worth is important to recognize because it helps us have a better self-esteem. We must know the value of ourselves before we gain the confidence to demonstrate our own value to others. Recognizing our self-worth allows us to believe in ourselves and not let the failures in life and the opinions of others define us.