In the traditional workplace, self-worth comes into play every single day. From taking orders to contributing to meetings, to taking on additional responsibilities due to downsizing, we are in an employment climate where self-worth is often downplayed and damaged.
It used to be that when you went to work, it was a source of your self-worth – it was part of what made you, you. With today’s trend towards downsizing and responsibility-sharing within the workplace, our workplace identity is often changing, and that feels unstable to us.
Increased demands on employees, and a faster-paced workplace environment all equate to less acknowledgment of excellent work. The employee feels as if they can never accomplish what needs to be done and overwhelm sets in a while taking a look at the workload. We are working more extended hours, bringing work home, and losing touch with other essential parts of our lives like time spent with friends, family, and being alone.
Maintaining a strong sense of self-worth while all of this is going on can be challenging, but it’s certainly not impossible, and it’s essential to your psychological health. It’s done a little bit at a time, every day, consistently, to help keep a healthy level of self-worth.
Here are three specific strategies that you can put into motion during your workday that will help create balance and firm inner peace that can help see you through especially tough times.
Three Strategies for Self-Worth at Work
1. Banish negative thoughts from your work environment. How do you do this? When a negative thought enters your mind, acknowledge it, “push it” from your mind, and then bring in a pleasant feeling. Does it seem too overwhelming? Then do it for the next hour. Then the next. And so on, until it becomes a habit. Dealing with negative thoughts is one habit that will last you a lifetime and will reward you continually.
Once you’ve gotten rid of the negative thought patterns, start with unloading those negative people from your life. There are a probably a few in your office that are negative, and that’s the way they want to be. You can’t do anything about their negativity, but you can choose to respond to it with a positive outlook.
2. Do something just for you, every day, no days off. Even if it’s only five or ten minutes a day, believe that you deserve it, and take that much-needed time to and for yourself. Read a book. Listen to music. Meditate.
3. Keep track of your successes at work. Keep a small notebook in a drawer for each achievement you see and write them down in a numbered list. Your list will help give you something “concrete” to look at when you begin to feel as if things aren’t going your way.
You can increase your self-worth at work by taking it one day at a time!
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