Increasing Confidence in Self and Others
Using CRG's Self-Worth Inventory©
Part One: Self
We all have various levels of self-worth.
Does it really matter if your sense of personal value is high or low? The answer is absolutely Yes!
Self-worth is a basic human need essential to normal, healthy development. High self-worth helps provide flexibility, strength, and a capacity to regenerate. It relates to increased levels of mental health, life success, and happiness.
Research has shown that individuals with lower self-worth have a diminished ability to contribute than those with higher self-worth. Low self-worth undermines all areas of human interaction and diminishes resilience in the face of life's problems. Low self-worth can stunt psychological and emotional growth.
In this series, I will share the content of the Self-Worth Inventory (SWI) and CRG's concept of situational self-worth. Depending on the context, environment, situation, and other dynamics, people's self-worth levels can vary wildly from high and confident to low and defeated. CRG streams situational self-worth into five critical sections.
Self-worth is the part of the human personality that determines personal value and importance.
- It is the area of our thinking that evaluates our behavior, appearance, feelings, thoughts, and abilities.
- It outlines both the level of appreciation we have for ourselves and the way we feel about our inherent worth—we believe we need to be or do to have value as a person.
There is debate in the psychology community about the degree of impact our levels of self-worth have in our life and the specific strategies that will best assist us to improve our self-worth.
But the majority of research overwhelmingly supports the opinion that there are strong overall benefits to having high self-worth in our lives. Self-worth is not only a source of motivation and personal energy to engage life, it reveals areas of psychological vulnerability. Dr. Nathaniel Branden, author and researcher of Our Urgent Need for Self-Esteem, sums up our thoughts in this quote.
"Self-worth provides the experience of being able to cope with the basic challenges of life and being worthy of happiness. It consists of two components.
1. Self-Efficacy: Confidence in our ability to think, learn, choose, and make appropriate decisions
2. Self-Respect: Confidence in our right to be happy and the belief that achievement, success, friendship, respect, love, and fulfillment are appropriate to us."
The basic challenges of life include such fundamentals as
- the ability to earn a living;
- to take independent care of ourselves in the world;
- to be competent in human relationships that are mutually satisfying; and
- to have the resilience that allows us to bounce back from adversity and persevere in our aspirations.
The Self-Worth Inventory is a simple yet powerful process to help measure your levels of self-worth in specific areas of your life. It does not create self-worth; it confirms what is already true.
As you engage life, your levels of self-worth highly influence the results you accomplish every single day. The SWI will assist you to gain a deeper understanding of your perception of your self-worth in five important areas. The knowledge you gain from this assessment will enable you to plan for increased confidence and assurance.
Most of the research suggests our self-worth is in constant flux, changing in response to the many dynamics that present themselves in our lives. We never achieve high self-worth permanently; we are always actively re-establishing it during our entire life. We see a fluctuation of self-worth in individuals who are laid off or fired from long-term positions or when personal relationships fail. In numerous cases, seemingly high-self-worth individuals fall apart.
It is possible to reduce the impact various events could have on an individual's self-worth levels, if the person understands the situation and has specific approaches for maintaining and increasing self-worth levels.
That's why many people and organizations use CRG's Self-Worth Inventory© on a regular and planned basis. We recommend you consider completing the SWI every 1 to 2 years to track and benchmark our self-worth levels. It also can assist you or your organization to help develop self-worth after significant changes or interventions.
The SWI provides practical information to assist you and others to develop and increase self-worth. The exercises in this inventory have been designed so participants can systematically examine fundamental levels of self-worth for the purpose of self-learning and group discussion. The SWI is only one part of CRG's holistic personal and professional development plan.
As you complete Section One of CRG's Self-Worth Inventory© on yourself—here it comes—think about others . . . those you respect and those you don't. In most cases, you will see a correlation between their self-worth levels, their likeability, and your level of respect for them.
The following information is from Section One: Self of CRG's Self-Worth Inventory©, written by Ken Keis, MBA, and Everett Robinson, MA.
- In the boxes provided, please write the number that best describes your situation regarding each statement during the past month.
- Be completely honest. There's no benefit in misrepresenting the truth.
The Scale |
RARELY
Less than 20% of the time |
1 |
OCCASSIONALLY
About 21% - 40% of the time |
2 |
REGULARLY
About 41% to 60% of the time |
3 |
VERY FREQUENTLY
About 61% to 80% of the time |
4 |
ALMOST ALWAYS
About 81% or more of the time |
5 |
Your
Response |
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Section One: Self
Self-Worth Inventory© |
|
1 |
I am an interesting person |
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2 |
I forgive myself when I fail. |
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3 |
I like the way I am currently living |
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4 |
I enjoy my life |
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5 |
I laugh at my own mistakes. |
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6 |
I feel good about my abilities. |
|
7 |
I think I am physically attractive.
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8 |
I feel proud of who I am. |
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‹ Your Total
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Here is what the various totals are indicating.
Total 8 to 19 |
Low Self-Worth |
Total 20 to30 |
Moderate Self-Worth |
Total 31 to 40 |
High Self-Worth |
Your relationship with yourself is extremely important in the process of increasing self-worth. You must learn how to view yourself in an accepting and loving manner. The eight statements in this section were designed to measure both what you think and how you feel about yourself.
A high score would indicate you think you are okay and that you feel satisfied with who you are. A low score would suggest you may not have a very high opinion of yourself and probably don't feel good about who you are as an individual.
So how did you do?
- Did you have responses where you gave yourself 3 or less? How can you improve and develop those "less than 3" areas? What training, coaching, and educational program(s) would help you increase your responses and capabilities?
- In future articles, we will outline the 12 Strategies for increasing and developing your Self-Worth
Click this link to take your full Self-Worth Inventory today, forward it to others you care about, and recommend it at your next management meeting as an important development option.
If you want to rate your Self-Worth Inventory or want others to experience this opportunity, click the link to immediately access the online version.
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