Grateful and Appreciate Yourself
Self-respect means that we are a combination of two selves, namely the self that respects and the self that is valued. I am the self that I value while my body, mind, feelings, and all my potential are myself that I value. Self-respect is a virtue between the two extremes, namely low self-esteem and arrogance.
Self-respect is not low self-esteem which means complaining; it is not arrogance which means to puff out one's chest, but it means to see oneself as an important and valuable person.
To make yourself into an important and valuable person, the first thing we need to do is accept ourselves as we are, physically, intellectually, socially, and emotionally. Outwardly, every human being is different; different skin color, different body posture, different face, but in relation to God, we are all the same.
Therefore, differences in body shape, skin color, origin of descent should not make us feel inferior and complain, nor should make us arrogant. Feeling inferior is as bad as arrogance. Low self-esteem means trampling on self-esteem, while arrogance means trampling on the self-esteem of others.
Behind these differences there must be a hidden wisdom. Complaining or boasting about our existence only makes us forget to be grateful which in the end the various important potentials that exist within us we cannot explore and develop. Complaining and arrogance will only prevent us from achieving various successes.
Most of us think that the successes we achieve can increase our self-esteem, but what really happens is that it is self-respect that leads us to achieve success. The more we value ourselves, the more success we will achieve. So, self-respect precedes success, while success does not occur directly, but occurs incidentally and is a continuation.
Also, it is not failure that causes a person to be inferior, but feelings of inferiority that lead to various failures. The more a person feels inferior, the more difficult it is for him to achieve success. This is because it is difficult for people with low self-esteem to start completely new activities for them. The bad image on him that he often complains about, “I'm a fool; I am a poor man; I'm a small person; I'm an ugly person; I am a descendant of ordinary people; I'm lazy; I can't do anything”, and various other bad images.
Feelings of low self-esteem don't just happen, they occur as an incidental effect of a long-standing negative self-image that comes from within or from other people. The first category of self-image is a person's choice so that he can avoid heavy and risky work. The second category self-image comes from parents or other adult figures such as grandparents, aunts, teachers, and so on.
When a person has accepted one or more negative images as a reality for himself, then the negative image will become an inner suggestion that will continue to work on him. He will live his life in this world according to the negative self-image he carries with him wherever he goes. When a person believes that he is stupid and helpless, then he has made suggestions to himself that make him really stupid and powerless to solve a problem that he can actually solve. Yes, he had already phoned himself incapable before he tried.
A criminal will continue to commit evil as long as he still maintains the image of himself as a criminal and thinks that evil is something that is impossible for him to turn into good. A fool will remain in ignorance as long as he accepts his self-image as a fool and believes that it is impossible for him to become intelligent. And, the poor will remain in poverty as long as he considers that poverty is a reality of his life that can no longer be changed.
Negative self-image has resulted in so many people getting stuck in their daily routines and reluctant to do anything new. Failure, shock, and disappointment often make them afraid to take risks to make changes. A person who feels more secure in living his life without encountering the risk of failure, for him, ignorance, poverty, and incompetence are circumstances that have come from there.
The assumption that everything has been there from the start is a form of someone's escape from his powerlessness to face life's challenges. Life is a series of choices; and someone who feels inferior is more because of his life choices that take refuge under a negative self-image. The goal is that he always has an excuse to be lazy and avoid various challenging heavy tasks.
Gratitude can be done by anyone who wants to change his self-image, from a negative self-image to a positive self-image. Of course, this is not an easy matter, especially for those who are used to living a lazy life by sheltering under a negative self-image.
By respecting oneself, humans can become a person who is in accordance with the positive self-image that he carves on him. Someone who has a self-image as a smart person, he will continue to try to prove it in life. He uses his hearing, sight, and logical thinking abilities to study, he uses both hands with various skills, so various successes always accompany him.
They are people who are grateful, namely people who value themselves by developing and utilizing all their potential to serve God and serve humanity in order to serve Him. Only people who are good at being grateful will always experience success in his life. For him, everything that God has given him is the best for him.
