Moral Philosophy: Measuring your self worth against Principle versus Measuring it against Society

There are two rulers that people use to measure their self worth - the first is destructive but the second, if our principles are good, is constructive.

The first ruler that people use is society: They say "I am good because other people think I am good" or "I am bad because other people think I am bad".
The second ruler people use is principle: They say, "I am good because I adhere to a set of principles that are good" or "I am bad because I am not adhering to the set of principles that are good".

The first ruler, the ruler of society, is destructive.
It is destructive because it makes us obsessed with the superficial; the outer things which we show to others.
This is because, in order to impress other people, we only have to make ourselves look good in the eyes of others and so we only have to improve our exterior qualities.
And that means that there is no real motivation for us to be a genuinely good person.
And if our goodness is only a sham then this causes 3 problems: Firstly, because we are obsessed with what others think of us, we are constantly terrified that they may discover that our goodness is merely a sham; secondly, we have to live with the private knowledge that our goodness is merely a sham and this may cause us to feel guilt and thirdly, if we are only motivated to make ourselves appear good then, in private, we may sink lower and lower in our immorality and the lower we sink in our private immorality, the greater our terror of people discovering that immorality becomes.

However, the second ruler, the ruler of principle, if we have a good set of principles to follow, is constructive.
It is constructive because, in order to measure up to those good principles, we have to genuinely be a good person.
If we only appear good to outsiders then we have failed to live up to our principles.
However, if we have lived up to our principles, no matter what others may think of us, we can still feel confident in ourselves that we are good.
And if you have confidence in your self worth then no matter how you are bullied or what hardships you have to endure then you find it easier to endure those things; you are a happier, healthier and stronger person inspite of those things

And not only is the ruler of principle better for us, it is better for society because if everyone is genuinely being good rather than appearing to be good then society as a whole is good and every individual will be happier living in that kind of society.

Summing up all the points I have made, I would say, "Measure your self worth according to how well you follow a set of good principles not according to what others think of you and then not only will you be a better person but society will be better and, as a member of that society, you will be better off.