The value we place on ourselves has a direct link to job performance and career advancement. A clear self-image and strong self-worth increase job engagement, beef up productivity and performance and improve relationships with coworkers. If you’re an employee who values your worth, you will have a better self-image and make a better leader than most because chances are you trust your judgment. You’re more likely to make sound decisions in such matters as assuming autonomy on projects, managing teams, hiring and promoting personnel and overall communication with colleagues.
But what if you feel deficient in some way? A fuzzy self-image and low self-worth can throw you into a cycle of career disappointments, which in turn lower your self-image. In one study, 92% of people who say they are highly satisfied with their jobs have a more positive attitude towards themselves, versus just 53% of those with low job satisfaction.
8 Actions To Beef Up Your Self-Image And Career
If your self-image needs beefing up, here are some steps that, when practiced regularly, can sharpen your self-image and boost your career.
- Define your career goals. Name your strengths, assign worth to your work skills and make a plan for achieving your goals. Make sure your skills and goals are aligned and set boundaries so you can stay on a path of reaching success. Be able to say no when you’re already overloaded and practice radical self-care to stave off burnout and keep distractions from detouring you from your career destination.
- Recall past victories. The human mind is automatically hard-wired with a negativity bias, but when you reflect on past achievements, it brings a more realistic balance. Studies show when you’re confronted with a challenging work situation and recall a time you mastered a similar hardship, it boosts your confidence and self-image and helps you scale career obstacles. Point to lessons learned and underscore ways you grew stronger through hard knocks.
- Practice positive self-talk. Talking to yourself in a positive way might sound odd, but it’s not. Well established science has shown that first-name self-talk—the positive way you speak to someone else, referring to yourself by name instead of as “I”—is a self-regulatory mechanism that creates psychological distance from negative thoughts. When you do this, the negative voice isn’t the only story you tell yourself. Once you engage this way in dialogue with your inner critic, you start to recognize your self-worth and have more self-value.
- Develop a wide perspective. You always have a choice in how you look at your career trajectory. Keep your eye on the big picture, which allows you to build on the many positive aspects of your workday. Think of a camera. You can replace the zoom lens—which focuses on negative work situations—by putting on a wide-angle lens which helps you see bigger possibilities. Get in the habit of looking for the upside of a downside work situation; avoid blowing disappointments out of perspective; underscore positive feedback instead of letting it roll off; focus on solutions instead of problems; pinpoint opportunity in a work challenge; refuse to let one bad work situation rule your outlook.
- High-five your “tallcomings.” When your thoughts constantly focus on your shortcomings, you become blind to the strengths and talents you have. To offset this imbalance, capitalize yourself by learning to high-five your “tallcomings” alongside your shortcomings. There’s a reason the word “shortcomings” is in Webster’s but “tallcomings” isn’t. There’s no such word. Having been hijacked by our critical voice on a regular basis, we get in the habit of ignoring our positive attributes and clobbering ourselves with negatives, creating a flawed view of our worth. It’s important to have a critical eye, accept constructive feedback and recognize our strengths and limitations without dropping our head in our hands. Make it a habit to throw modesty out the window and name as many of your accomplishments as you can—what you’re good at, the skills and talents you possess, and what you’ve achieved that your negative voice constantly overshadows.
- Cultivate self-compassion. Self-compassion is like a best friend that talks you off the ledge, bounces you back when you feel disheartened and propels you closer to your goals. And orders you the proverbial pizza when you need it. Pep talks, affirmations or an arm around your shoulder are good medicine to co-exist with your inner critic’s oppression. I don’t mean someone else’s arm. I mean your own capital Self’s supportive arm. When you self-soothe through letdowns—instead of attacking yourself—you feel better and cultivate the confidence and courage to face workplace challenges.
- Be open to feedback. You can’t have a front without a back or an up without a down. And none of us are perfect. So request feedback from coworkers whose opinions you value. After a performance review from a manager or supervisor, take the constructive feedback, instead of getting defensive, and turn it to your advantage. Asking yourself how constructive feedback can improve your performance is in itself a building block to self-worth that can help you arrive at your career destination.
- Curb your perfectionism. Unbridled perfection injects its rigidity into your bloodstream and chokes the flow of spontaneous and flexible ideas. Uncurbed, it causes you to set unrealistic goals, try too hard and over focus on your mistakes. It blinds you from generating your best work. Chances are, if you’re a perfectionist, even when others don’t demand perfection, you demand it anyway. And it can stop you (and your career) in your tracks. Plus, perfectionism can make you such a stickler that nobody—not even you—can meet your standards. If you hold the bar too high with coworkers or subordinates, it creates problems with interpersonal relationships. View your capabilities in more realistic light and set reasonable goals.
A Final Takeaway
It’s counterintuitive, but the way to cultivate a strong self-image is by stepping outside your comfort zone. Instead of fleeing from the unknown or unpredictable, get out of the ruts, rules and routines and into the unfamiliar and unexpected. Once you start to stick your neck out and accept failure as an essential steppingstone to a strong self-image, you become willing to go through the required “growth pains” to get there.
The writer Neil Gaiman said, “Go and make mistakes, make amazing mistakes, make glorious and fantastic mistakes. Break the rules. Leave the world more interesting for you being here.” Think of failure as a personal trainer that builds your confidence to face the next career challenge. Allow yourself to make mistakes in order to stumble into career triumphs. What edge can you go to in your career? What unpredictable bridge can you jump off to sprout your wings? What limb can you reach to get to the fruit of the tree?