Mark Sanford, Ph.D.
ILLUMINATION
Published in
3 min readJan 6, 2024

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DOING THE HARD THING TO EMPOWER GROWTH AND SELF-RESPECT

Self-acceptance, self-approval, and self-fulfillment from doing challenging work.

Photo by Elisa Ventur on Unsplash

As a rule, it is important in life not to shortchange yourself, to constantly drive yourself on, to immerse yourself in the striving for hard work and problem-solving.

To you, dear reader, if I can convince you of this point, it will be because I can first show you that doing the challenging thing will lead to increased self-respect.

Achieving Self-Respect

My theory of self-respect posits that an individual’s main priority in life is to find self-acceptance and that self-acceptance is often found through doing challenging things.

Executing the demanding thing can provide valuable evidence that you have achieved increased self-respect. Why?

When confronted with the most difficult choice, you will find it is the most desirable because, whatever the obstacles, your self-esteem will increase.

The Benefits of Hard Work

Doing hard things is a way of challenging yourself and achieving your potential. There are many benefits of doing hard things, such as:

  • You will train yourself to enjoy the process of overcoming obstacles and not just the…

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Mark Sanford, Ph.D.
ILLUMINATION

Ph.D. sociology. I help those working on personal development to attain self-respect and self-affirmation.https://medium.com/@sanfmark/membership