How to Like Yourself More: 4 Daily Decisions for Higher Self-Esteem

1. Keep the promises you make to yourself.

1.1. Don't just keep your promises to others. Keep the promises you make to yourself

1.2. Don't be so concerned with other people’s wants and needs that you end up constantly compromising what you want.

1.3. Don't ignore your own suggestions and desires.

1.4. Don't disregard your own recommendations and commitments.

1.5. Don't flake out on the plans you make for yourselves.

1.6. If we do that, we start to think pretty poorly of ourselves

1.7. We lose respect for ourself, and eventually, just plain don’t like ourselves.

1.8. Don't assume that taking care of other people’s wants and desires is all you need for self-esteem

1.9. True self-esteem comes from balancing the wants and needs of others with the wants and needs of yourself.

1.10. When it comes to keeping promises to yourself, start small

2. Spend more time with people you genuinely like.

2.1. Hang around bright, curious, passionate people. Absorb some of that enthusiasm and channel it in your life.

2.2. People we consistently spend time with affect our wellbeing and sense of self too.

2.3. It's much easier to like yourself more if you spend a lot of time with people who genuinely like you.

2.4. Do you want to hang around people to improve your social standing or hang around people you like?

2.5. If you find yourself chronically spending time with people you don’t really enjoy, take a moment to consider why that is.

3. Be gentle in the way you talk to yourself.

3.1. We dislike the people in our lives who are critical, negative, and at times, just plain mean. Don't be like that to yourself

3.2. For a lot of people, the inner voice is a jerk. It’s harsh, judgmental, overly-critical, pessimistic, and sometimes cruel.

3.3. Even if you understand that it’s not accurate or helpful to talk that way, you still feel miserable if you keep doing it.

3.4. If you constantly talk down to yourself, you’re going to feel the same as if another person was constantly putting you down.

3.5. Focus on one simple idea: gentleness

3.6. By focusing on gentleness, you will find yourself being more realistic in your self-talk.

3.7. Habitually become gentler and more realistic in the way you talk to yourself and feel much better about yourself.

4. Make time to do things you actually enjoy.

4.1. Don't give up doing what they love in order to do what other people love.

4.2. It's not selfish

4.3. Don't do black and white thinking.

4.4. Prove to yourself that making time for what you want doesn’t mean an automatic negative for other people you care about

4.5. Doing things for yourself doesn’t mean you’re selfish. It means you have enough self-respect to take care of yourself.

4.6. This isn’t always as easy as it sounds. And the reason is, we have to be willing to tolerate some uncomfortable feelings

4.7. You need to make time to do things you genuinely enjoy

4.8. You wouldn’t like a friend who never made time for you.

4.9. You can’t expect to like yourself more if you never make time for yourself.