Often, people are told that praising themselves is creating overconfidence, or giving themselves a lot of compliments which results in them showing off a lot. We have all heard one line on two on why we shouldn’t give ourselves praise because we might end up being arrogant. But self-praise is not entirely a bad thing, as much as we want to hear people giving us good compliments about our capability and feel innocent about it, it is also innocent to self-praise without shame or judgment. Self-praise is a speech act that involves uttering a positive statement about oneself. Aline Tumukunde, a Public Relations Officer, says that when a person self praises themselves they are more likely to be confident in themselves, and to always put their opinion first before others. “Self-praise is not making yourself superior to others, it is giving yourself love, and care. So when a person constantly tells them how good they are, how amazing they are, and what they can achieve, they create a block or wall between how other people feel about them and how they feel about themselves. No one's opinion can destroy them or put them down, they don’t let what others think about themselves influence them and hence they succeed a lot and achieve more,” she says. Tumukunde stresses that self-praise is not about boasting to others about what you can do and what they can’t do, she explains that praising yourself daily is creating confidence for yourself, and approval from you. People who talk about themselves regularly don’t wait for others' approval to do anything and they are more prone to reaching a lot of things. Fabrice Iradukunda, an IT specialist, is of the view that self-praise creates immunity to failures, he believes that people who praise themselves are confident and have self-esteem and therefore when they meet failures they are not afraid of them. “People that lack confidence or self-esteem, fear failure because they think that if they fall they will never be able to come back up, but people that praise themselves have a mindset that failures exist and that they are powerful enough to overcome any failure. They believe that if they fail they will be able to succeed again because they know that they are capable,” he explains. He also adds that such people easily grow in what they do and improve, because they believe in themselves that they are capable and that they achieve a lot, even when the tasks are bigger than them they believe that they are good. Serge Ihumure, a technician, shares that self-praise has changed him for better ever since he learned about it. “Ever since I learned that praising myself is not a bad thing, I am more confident and aware of my ability, I used to fear taking steps to change or suggest something at my work because I always thought that I am probably not the right person to do so, but every morning before going to work I would tell myself that I am good at my job, I am intelligent and that my opinions matter. I ended up getting a big promotion just because it all started with self-confidence,” he says. Ihumure says that many people are skeptical about self-praise and don’t know how to do it, he shares a few ways to start with for people who wish to practice self-praise: Check the way you talk to yourself often: If you are constantly judging yourself, blaming yourself, and not recognising your potential, then you should change that and start by thanking yourself any time you do something good, give yourself good compliments like “I am good, I am capable and I am deserving”, so you need to become aware of your internal dialogue. Don’t compare yourself with others: You are unique so comparing yourself might make you feel that you are not good because we all don’t receive the same blessings. So be yourself, only look at yourself and be aware that we will not always be successful the same or achieve the same, our time will come too. Don’t overdo it: Too much of anything is not good. Know when to self-praise and when not to, for instance, if you do something good and the facts are there it’s okay to praise yourself, but when you did nothing or have been lazy it would be irrelevant to praise yourself. You can use self-praise to be more productive, and also don’t tell everyone every single great thing you have done.
