When we spend time on social media, it can seem as though everyone in the world is super successful. That goes for everyone from the people we went to school with to our friends, colleagues and family members.

Part of this is because social networking allows us to curate the way that we present ourselves to the world. We only see other people’s successes because they don’t tend to talk about their failures.

The truth is that a lot of the people who seem the most successful are actually struggling with their sense of self-worth, and it often shows in their behavior. But what exactly are the signs for us to look out for?

Let’s take a look.

1) They’re perfectionists

You might be surprised by how many people who lack self-worth are perfectionists.

That’s because they try to find their self-worth by doing things perfectly. Often, they’re creative people who can’t quite execute on the ideas they have inside their head.

To the perfectionist who finds self-worth in the work they do, it should be no surprise that they lack that sense of worth. Perfection doesn’t exist, and the more we chase it, the further away it tends to feel.

And as much as I’d love to tell you that there’s an easy fix to this, there isn’t. Your only option is to look somewhere else to find your sense of worth.

2) They’re over-humble

Humility is a noble trait, and there’s nothing wrong with demonstrating your fair share of it.

The problem with people who lack self-worth is that they often display excessive amounts of humility and are unable to celebrate their accomplishments as a result of it.

When we achieve something, get better at a skill we’ve been practicing, or do something awesome, we should celebrate it. Those celebrations are good for the soul and can increase our confidence as we move forward in life.

And so the TL:DR is that humility is good in moderation, but that too much of anything can be a bad thing. Especially for people who lack self-worth.

3) They dodge compliments

This one is born from the fact that the people we’re talking about are over-humble.

Their humility means that they struggle with compliments, and if they’re on the receiving end of them, they find it hard to know how to deal with them. They’ll generally blush and mutter a word or two of thanks, but it doesn’t come naturally.

Wherever possible, they’ll avoid those compliments completely. If they’re a musician and someone tries to tell them how much they enjoyed one of their songs, they’ll deflect the attention by talking about some other songwriter.

That’s not to say that they don’t like compliments, because they do. They just don’t know how to react to them.

4) They work harder than anyone else

The lack of self-worth drives the people we’re talking about to push themselves as hard as they possibly can. They see being productive as a competition.

Essentially, they feel as though they can’t compete with other people when it comes to natural talent or intelligence, and so they rely on hard work and brute force to do the job instead.

This is one of the reasons why these people often seem successful in the first place. They might be given promotions because they have a reputation for hard work and for being the first to get to work in the mornings and the last to leave at night.

The problem is that it’s unsustainable, and people end up having nervous breakdowns as they try to live up to the impossible standards that they set themselves.

5) They compare themselves to others

The truth is that we all compare ourselves to other people. It’s a natural part of being human.

The difference with people who lack self-worth is that when they compare themselves to other people, they do so through a negative lens.

This means that when they look out at what other people are doing, they’ll automatically think that they don’t stack up well beside them. Even when their performance is objectively the same, they won’t be able to see that.

For example, let’s say that they got the same score as their friend in a science test. They’ll tell themselves that the other person found the test much easier than they did, even if that’s not the case.

6) They don’t delegate

One of the big issues with people who lack self-worth is that they’re bad at delegating. And there’s a reason for that.

The problem is that they tell themselves that they don’t have the authority to delegate, and that other people have better things to be doing with their time. They’d rather just do the job themselves.

The interesting thing here is that a lot of people avoid delegating because they think that other people won’t be able to get the job done to the same standard that they can. But this isn’t true of people with low self-worth.

Instead, they know that other people could do the job just as well as they could, if not better. They just don’t want to ask.

7) They have imposter syndrome

As you can probably imagine from the last point, a lot of people who seem successful but who lack self-worth have imposter syndrome.

This is the phenomenon in which we feel as though we don’t deserve the success we have or as though we’re not qualified for the work that we’re doing. And it’s surprisingly common.

Imposter’s syndrome can lead to people self-sabotaging because they feel as though something’s bound to go wrong and so they might as well make sure that it goes wrong on their own terms.

The thing that’s worth remembering when you find yourself dealing with imposter syndrome is that there’s a reason why we have the success that we do. We don’t achieve things in life by accident.

8) They struggle to say no

People with low self-worth often have a hard time saying no, because they feel duty bound to help people when they ask for it.

Their low sense of self-worth means that they’ll do almost anything to feel good about themselves, and that includes helping people out when they need it. And, because they’re super humble, they won’t even expect to be thanked for it.

This can lead to people with a low sense of self-worth being taken for granted and even manipulated by other people who don’t have the same problem.

On top of that, when you say yes to everything, you end up spreading yourself too thin to be able to live up to all of those commitments. If you promise to help everyone in the world, you won’t be able to help anyone.

9) They often skip self-care

All of this time helping other people can mean that the people who lack self-worth don’t have any time left to focus on themselves.

This means that they tend not to prioritize self-care, especially when it comes to their mental and physical health. They’ll usually do the basics, like making sure that they wash and that they eat at least a basic meal, but they won’t do more than the bare minimum.

But it’s really the mental health stuff that they’ll overlook, which is yet another reason why they can end up burning out through overwork.

And the reason why they skip self-care is super simple. They lack self-worth and so they don’t see themselves as being a priority. They’re busy putting everyone else first.

10) They avoid attention

Last but by no means least, people who lack self-worth often try to avoid attention because they don’t feel comfortable being in the spotlight.

Part of this is due to their humility, but most of it is because their self-worth is so low that they don’t feel as though they deserve attention. It’s like a form of imposter’s syndrome.

Often, the people that we’re talking about have also learned to avoid attention because there have been negative repercussions when they’ve received attention before.

It can become a kind of negative feedback loop where they think that the only kind of attention that they could ever receive is negative attention. So why risk it?

Conclusion

Now that you know just a few of the subtle behaviors that betray a successful person’s lack of self-worth, you’re better placed to spot the people who are struggling with it.

Of course, it’s up to you how you respond to that. You might want to offer your support to help them to overcome that lack of self-worth, or you might want to use it as a reminder that you’re not the only one who’s struggling.

Whatever the case, let this be a reminder that every single one of us has self-worth, and that we don’t need anyone or anything as a prerequisite. You matter. Don’t forget that.