Valentine’s Day gets a bad rap for being solely about commercialism and celebrating romantic love. But, it’s also a good day to talk about another kind of love: self-esteem. We’ve written before about The Importance Heathy Self-Esteem, but now I’d like to discuss how loving yourself first can benefit you at work.

So what is self-esteem?

The dictionary defines it as “a person’s overall evaluation or appraisal of her or his own worth.” We usually define it as the degree to which you like and respect yourself and how warm and friendly you feel about yourself. You get the idea. It’s about accepting that you are not perfect but happy with who you are and open to being your best self — as cliched as it sounds!

I am sure you are wondering where the work connection comes in. Well, imagine if everyone you work with, including yourself came in tomorrow with just a little bit more self-esteem than today. What would it be like?

Maybe more people would volunteer to get involved in projects or they would be confident enough to work together without feeling threatened. They might also come into work smiling and have an overall higher level of energy.

People with high self-esteem also have healthier relationships in general, so why not start by developing the most important relationship you have?  And that’s the one you have with yourself and see if that doesn’t bring about more respect in your work-life as well.