Self-esteem Is Not Being Selfish, Arrogant Or Superior

Self-esteem is not being selfish, arrogant, superior or proud. Self-esteem is loving oneself and looking at oneself sensibly in our psychological mirror; a protected mirror image with a strong foundation.

There are people who highlight themselves with an arrogance by focusing on their strength. They strive to hide their vulnerability away. Outwardly, they seem perfect and they claim to be doing nothing wrong.

These people lack self-knowledge and do not trust themselves. They hide behind a mask and long to be perfect, but that is impossible.

The difference between being self-centered and having self-confidence

The ego is the foundation of our personal identity. Thus, it involves both having self-esteem and being self-centered. We can distinguish between these two concepts in this way: self-esteem is a sensible and tolerant love, and selfishness is an empty, thoughtless, unreasonable and intolerant love.

There is a story that nicely illustrates how self-esteem manifests itself and how it does not. Let’s take a look at it below:

I was walking with my father when he suddenly stopped at a street corner and after a quiet moment, he asked me:

-In addition to the birds singing, can you hear anything else?

I pricked up my ears and a few seconds later I replied:

-I can hear the noise of a carriage.

-Yes, exactly – said my father. It’s an empty cart.

-How do you know it’s an empty cart if you’ve not seen it yet? I asked my father.

-It is very easy to know when the cart is empty because it makes an incredible amount of noise. The more empty a wagon is, the more noise it makes – he replied.

I grew up and even today, when I see someone who talks too much, interrupts conversations, is intrusive or violent, shows up, acts arrogant and undermines others, I remember my father’s voice saying:

“The more empty a wagon is, the louder the noise coming from it.”

Humility is not about showing off our strengths but about allowing others to discover them. There is no one more empty than those who are full of arrogance, are pretentious and self-centered, those who make a lot of noise do not have a healthy self-perception (self-esteem).

You are neither better nor worth less than others

The divided boundary between the ego and self-worth is very fine. We are neither better nor worse than others, we are just different. Having an understanding of diversity is without a doubt the basis or pillar of a healthy self-esteem, which promotes a positive attitude towards oneself and others.

A healthy self-perception has the advantage that when we achieve things in our lives, we are not so arrogant that we eventually believe. we understand everything. We do not fall into the clutches of being self-centered, and the negative or excessive love of our ego.

A person who loves his personality in a sensible and not exaggerated way does not put his feelings, thoughts and opinions in the spotlight for himself or others. While self-esteem promotes thoughts about equality, emotions, and ways of being, being self-centered is the belief that one is superior in meaning and sense.

So when we behave in an arrogant or self-centered way, what we want is to put more meaning into what we ourselves believe in, by minimizing what others think or feel.

In short, one should not mix egocentrism with self-confidence and belief in oneself. Some people tend to think that they are better in all relationships and that they can behave arrogantly. But if we are confident in ourselves, it helps us understand our skills and limitations.

Furthermore e r it it much easier to love others if one loves himself. But sometimes it can be hard not to get carried away by our big ego and erroneously be arrogant because we want to make sure our opinions and feelings are heard.

Therefore, it would be best to analyze ourselves and take some precautions because the line between both fields is very thin and it is very easy to make the mistake that it would be to impose our desires on others.