Entitlement Versus a Decent Sense of Self-Worth

An attitude of entitlement doesn’t increase the chances you’ll get what you want.
And it ruins the joy of the things you do get.
Win or lose, you lose.
-Seth Godin

Is it weird that my first thought (after agreeing with Mr. Godin's point) was to wonder about the difference between being entitled versus feeling you deserve goodness in an "I have enough self-worth to believe that I deserve good things"-type way?

Here's the result of my pondering:

At first blush, yes, they are similar because they both think you are somehow inherently deserving of... well, anything.

HOWEVER!

Entitlement thinks you deserve things because you are soooooo great. You're so much more rich or important or beautiful or smart than others and therefore should have whatever the heck you want.

Self-worth believes you are deserving too, but in a "just as much as anyone else because I'm as worthy as they are"-type way. You aren't better than other people, but dangit, you are as valuable of a human as any of them! It's usually more about rejecting poor treatment than demanding nice things.

And yes, feeling you already deserve all the nice things does kind of ruin them if they come your way. Where's the joy in that?


The Receptionist Delivers!
Sign up for my email newsletter for a bi-weekly digest and bonus content!

No comments:

Post a Comment