The point of this video is extremely wise and extremely simple: That self-respect and self-esteem are largely the result of have having faith in your own word.
While searching for the root cause my life’s current struggles, each issue no matter how disparate, has had it source in a lack of self-esteem. But learning how to develop self-esteem has been trickier than one might think. It isn’t just convincing yourself you are good, or, even worse, that you are better than others. I am certain now that the only way it can be built is by doing actions that make you proud of yourself. Chris Williamson here points to this truth, but at an even more foundational level. Self-esteem is not only built from doing things your are proud of, but that we are most proud of actions that live up to our word.
For example, you can wake up at 7 and many would see this as a victory, but if you told yourself you’d wake up at 5, then it is a failure. To be clear, it is not a failure because you didn’t wake up at 5, it’s a failure because you lost trust and respect for yourself.
At the end of the day you are the only person you need to respect, but if you continually do not live up to your standards then that will be nearly impossible to do.
Alex Hormozi also talks about this. He says he can do a job quickly according most most people’s standards, but he is working only to satisfy his standards because he is the one who has to live with himself. If he does a job that he is not proud of, then he will lose respect for himself and that is the worst possible thing.
Finally, I just want to say that many people will hear this and instead changing their behaviors and rising to the standards set by themself, they will simply lower their standards in order to ensure they keep their word to themselves. There is a wisdom in this. As in all things, one should take a balanced approach, and unrealistic standards are just that… unrealistic. Therefore, they are lies and should not be maintained. But if your standards are realistic and you still lower the bar, then that is failure and weakness of character and will only lead to less self-respect and more self-delusion.