3 Reasons You Should Be Proud Of Yourself Starting From Today

Stand up with your head high. Have the courage to see the good in yourself. Pat your back in everything you do, no matter how small the task is. Stop victimizing yourself. These are just some examples of what it means to have self-pride.

So many of us learned early on in life that being proud is a negative quality, almost identical to arrogance. You were told that you should put your head down, don’t full of yourself, and do your best.

But vanity is not equal to pride. You can be humble and at the same time, proud of yourself.

Feeling proud of yourself doesn’t make you self-entitled or standoffish. It’s really about acknowledging your worth without apologizing for it. It’s about knowing your value without being ashamed of it.

Why Feeling Proud of Who You Are Is Important?

We got accustomed to praising others for their accomplishments, but never ourselves. Because if we do that, it would look bad. Besides, you’d feel uncomfortable tapping yourself on the shoulder and say “hey, good job!”

But that’s exactly what you need to do on a regular basis. Know why? Because that’s the key to happiness.

When you underestimate who you are as a person, you deprive yourself of happiness and peace, which leads to general dissatisfaction with your life. Your refusal to announce, even in private, “I am proud of myself” depletes you of your natural, born, built-in power you have.

If you downplay yourself, you signal to your brain and others the message that you are not important. Why would you rob yourself of the rewards that you truly deserve?

In addition, feeling proud of yourself means you have a strong sense of self. That enables you to try new things and explore new avenues, without allowing failures to tear you apart.

Opening yourself up for new experiences increases your chances of success. You’re not restricted in a narrow world, but you go out there and see what you can learn next.

On the other hand, you don’t let your ego get in the way. You know your strengths and weaknesses.

If you’re not good at something and you have no interest in this, you won’t force yourself to be proficient at this subject. You’ll just focus on your natural talents and know your limits.

When you do achieve that warm hearting success, you don’t let it change you at your core. You remain rooted in your values while feeling content and grateful for your progress.

The Genuine Pride

As we discussed above, pride has misperceptions. These are false beliefs that distort the entire meaning of being proud of yourself.

I can understand why, though.

There are many people out there who manipulate this concept and express toxic pride. For example — Narcissists.

As a matter of fact, their behavior doesn’t even demonstrate pride. On the contrary. They present a delusional mask to cover deep-seated shame and weaknesses.

Because their sense of self is broken, the ego is taking over their life. They cannot handle any type of criticism or failure, so they project their insecurities on others and at the same time, feeling overly entitled. Adding to that mixture of toxicity, they also lack empathy.

Authentic pride is easy to recognize if you know what you look for.

Signs of healthy pride:

• You’re Feeling comfortable in your own skin.
• You’re not ashamed of your presence — you give yourself permission to take up space.
• You empower others to feel good about themselves.
• Your self-esteem is disconnected from your achievements — you feel good enough for being you.
• You stand behind your choices and are open to hearing others’ opinions.
• You do your best and reaching a high standard for yourself.

Signs of fake pride:

• You’re shaming others and putting them down to feel good about yourself,
• Diminishing others’ accomplishments and glorifying yourself.
• Taking credit for everything, including things you didn’t do.
• You feel worthy only when experiencing success and receiving praise from others.

Small Steps That Will Help You Feel Proud of Yourself

Having inner pride is the ability to look in yourself I the mirror and say “I deserve you feel good about myself”.

Heck, why wouldn’t you? I don’t believe we were put in this world to feel bad about ourselves.

We are here to grow, evolve and thrive. The way we grow is through our set of beliefs and through experience.

Here are small steps, you can practice starting from today to feel pride. You deserve it.

Embrace your uniqueness:

Tell yourself “I am proud of who I am” daily

This exercise is an excellent start to build that pride inside you. Just tell yourself morning and night “I have a right to feel good about myself. I am proud of who I am as a person”.

If you feel awkward stating that, or if you sense resistance is kicking in, then find a way to congratulate yourself for achievements, at first. It could be even the tiniest achievement. For example: “I’m proud of myself that I organized the bedroom today.”

Expand your comfort zone

It’s easy to get sucked into the familiar mundane life. It’s a lot harder to deliberately put yourself in unfamiliar situations and do things that scare you.

I’m not talking about performing skydiving or things that put you at actual risk. I’m talking about doing things that scare you just a tiny bit until you feel comfortable doing them and then, move on to the next stage.

When you prove to yourself that you are capable of setting goals and taking the necessary actions to achieve them, you can’t help but feel proud of yourself.

Even if you fail, you are still showing yourself that you are pushing yourself forward to do what’s right for you, rather than what’s convenient.

Start taking credit for your contributions

It’s time that you learn to take credit for the things you do and feel proud of it. You don’t have to do it all the time.

But when you see that your contributions are ignored, taken for granted, or taken by someone else, you can step in and say “I am the one who did A, B, C”, whether it’s at work or in your personal relationships.

Re-shape your mind

Think about all the time that has passed that you entertained, not by your fault, the idea that feeling proud is bad. That idea turned into a stubborn belief that is placed in the subconscious level.

Fortunately, our mind is plastic and we can re-design it as we wish. It takes persistence, but you’re worth it. My mind-shifting tools are designed to help you get rid of limiting beliefs and embrace healthy paradigms.

Check out this formula to bombard your brain with the messages that it is safe for you to be proud of yourself, and that there is nothing wrong with it.

In Summary

Feeling proud of yourself will only better yourself and the world around you. Unlike disdainful people, you’d see possibilities and motivate others to notice them as well. When you identify your own worth, it will be a lot easier to see the beauty in others.

Don’t confuse pride with perfectionism. You’re not perfect. You’ve made mistakes in the past and rest assured you’ll have regrets in the future. Despite that, you should be proud of yourself, because you have value and you deserve self-care and self-respect.