Many people mistakenly believe that external achievements and validation are the keys to happiness. However, true and lasting happiness stems from within. April Shprintz delves into the crucial concept of self-worth and how it fundamentally differs from self-esteem. She explores why prioritizing the things you truly deserve is the essential foundation for unlocking lasting happiness, a sense of fulfillment, and the life you desire.
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90% Of People Think This Leads To Happiness – Don’t Make The Same Mistake!
Focus On Building Self-Worth
I am so glad you’re here. It seems like a deep topic for this episode, but it is so important that I share this with you before the new year because I want you to start this next chapter of your life this next year, focusing on the thing that will make you the most happy. I will tell you, 90% of people focus on building their self-esteem to be happy and successful and it’s not the right thing. What they need to be focusing on and what I’m going to share with you and how to do it, is building their self-worth.
Those sound pretty similar, like, “April, they’re the same thing,” but they aren’t. Self-esteem is, “I am worthy and good because of what I can do.” Self-worth is I am worthy and good because I am, because I exist, just because. Dr. Christina Hibbert explained this in something that she wrote in 2013, which was, “Self-esteem is what we think and feel and believe about ourselves. Self-worth is recognizing that we’re greater than all of those things. It’s a deep knowing that I am of value, that I am lovable, that I’m necessary to this life, and I am of incomprehensible worth.”
That sounds like a lot, but it is because it is the key to absolutely everything. When I work with clients, they have self-esteem, but they don’t really have the self-worth, meaning they have all these achievements. They’ve made so much money, they’ve done so much in education, awards, accomplishments in their business, in their personal life, in their athletic life. They feel like, “What else is there? There’s got to be something else.” The something else is understanding that even without any of those things, they are worth so much. Self-worth really goes into self-love and really applying the principles of your mindset, along with having true self-worth will open the world up.
Self-worth goes into self-love and applying the principles of your mindset. True self-worth will open the world up. Share on XThis will allow you to manifest anything and everything you want because you will know deep inside that you deserve it. It will allow you to love yourself and others at a level you’ve never been able to do before. Let’s think about this. When people say, “I feel like I might have self-worth, but only if I do things,” think about if you have children or if you have a dog, a cat, an animal, what did they have to do to be worthy to you? Why do you have to do things in order to be worthy?
To be fair, this is something that I struggled with for years and years. I used to literally believe that the Constitution was written something like this. We’ll say people for the purpose of this exercise. All people are created equal, except for April. She has to earn it. Why? It’s because I, too, struggled with that self-worth part. I really wanted to work on, ‘How do I do this?”
How To Build Self-Worth As An Adult
Candidly, even if you had good parents, even if your family of origin didn’t struggle like so many did, self-worth is often developed by what your parents and your caregivers mirrored to you when you were very young, like 1, 2, 3 years old. Here’s the caveat. No one told anyone this. Some people did it naturally. Some people didn’t know to do it and some people had never had it done for them, so how could they do it for you? The thing is, this is something that, as an adult, you can fix and that can change everything about your life.
For me, to build self-worth, which is totally different than self-esteem, not based on what I could do, but just I am worthy because I thought of myself as the little four-year-old version of me. What would she have had to do for me to think she was worthwhile? What I realized is that even though I was in my late 30s, I was so hard on myself that I would never have talked to her that way.
While working on your mindset will help you in doing work on your self-worth, it is a way to guide your thoughts, to monitor that inner critic and approach yourself with love, compassion, and empathy. What will ultimately do this for you is finding a way to understand that that little you, the most you of you, that little child inside deserves anything and everything just like any child you encounter, just like each and every one of us.
You are perfect just as you are, and you can be even better as time goes on. The most important thing for you to remember is you deserve anything and everything you want just because. Just because you exist, just because you are here on this earth and you draw breath. That can be a tough thing to wrap your head around, but every step you take towards it will take you closer to the life that you’ve always wanted.
You are perfect just as you are, and you can be even better as time goes on. Share on XWhether the tools you want to use are things like mirror work that I recommended with Louise Hay in a previous episode, or simply looking at yourself the way that you look at others in your life. There are people in your life who do not have to do anything at all for you to love them and know that they’re worthy. You deserve that same kind of love from yourself because that is what will supercharge all the mindset worth that you’re doing, all of the effort you’re putting in, all of the consistency, all of the activity. It’ll supercharge everything and get you the life that you want in 2025 and beyond. Here’s to your success.