Back when we were children, we didn’t know how to praise ourselves. We needed praise from our elders and from others around us. At school, we received rewards for working hard – good grades. If we took part and did well in sports, there were rewards there too. Yet all of this praise we received was external, as in from someone else, not ourselves. At some point in our lives we need to make the transition from looking for external praise to gaining the ability to praise ourselves and develop self-pride. If we don’t make this transition, we can end up stuck.

So we explore reasons why you should start promoting the idea of self-pride.

1. Pride is a motivator

Looking forward to pay day is great motivation. It gets us up in the morning to go to work. At the end of the week or month we receive the reward for putting in 38 hours every week. But the money doesn’t motivate us to go above and beyond what we need to get it. Self-pride, however, gives us the motivation to go beyond what is simply required. We can then say to ourselves “well done”. We keep looking for something else we can praise ourselves for, setting new goals in the process.

2. Self-pride replaces the need for external rewards and praise

In the big wide world we don’t have our mum or dad at our sides praise us for every small thing we do. We have managers that don’t take our self-esteem into consideration, only what we can produce. If we don’t make the transition from external rewards and praise, then we may find it difficult to become more productive or take on a new challenge. If nobody notices what we’re doing, there will be zero value in even trying it. When we have self-pride then we want to do everything well, even if nobody notices.

3. Self-pride = self-esteem = self-efficacy

Self-efficacy is simply how effective you believe you are at doing what you do. When you are good at what you do, you will praise your self – this praise will increase your self-esteem and then you will be able to accept that you really are effective at what you do. This is a good cycle that can repeat itself. This keeps building up and building up, increase your self-confidence, self-pride and even your abilities to compete tasks.

4. Self-pride makes us become independent

When we relieve ourselves of the need to be praised by others, we become independent. We can set our own goals and follow our own desires, not anyone else’s (like our parents, friends or bosses). It’s a liberating way to live life. It enables us to follow even the most difficult of challenges, like moving to a new country or setting up a business from scratch.