Redefine yourself: Improve your self esteem

Low self-esteem and lack of confidence can hold us back from achieving many things. It can also be detrimental to our physical and emotional well being. The level of our self-esteem has profound consequences on every aspects of our existence -

- how we operate  at our workplace
- how we deal with people
- how high we are likely to rise and
- how much we are likely to achieve

The reason for low self esteem often being during childhood. Even the most confident of adolescents can grow up to experience low self esteem and start to feel unworthy. Adult life can be tough and it can sometimes feel like the survival of the fittest. And, we’re all, at some point, going to bump into people who will try to belittle us.

Low esteem is best defined as having a low opinion of oneself (either consciously or sub consciously), and feelings of being worthless. Yet, the subject has not recieved the kind of attention that it deserves. Unless our self  esteem  plummets to the extent that we can no longer handle our lives effectively.

Characteristics of low self esteem

- General lack of participation.
- Negative response to questions.
- Sluggish physical behavior.
- Excessive use of activities for escapism (TV, videos, internet, reading).
- Aggressive or argumentative behavior.
- Indecisiveness
- Unwillingness to try anything new.
-  Inability to say NO.
- Need to prove self worth and status by boasting, making public claims about capabilities.
- Low self-esteem has been correlated with low life satisfaction, loneliness, anxiety, resentment, irritability and depression.

How to improve your self esteem and boost your confidence

Accept yourself

Firstly, you need to become more accepting of yourself and to realize that nobody is perfect and that we all make mistakes from time to time, and that this is natural and perfectly acceptable.

Recognize your talents

Another method of boositng self confidence is to recognize talents, abilities and good qualities. Constantly remind ourselves of these and to give ourselves a pat on the back when ever we are able to utilize those abilities and qualities for the benefit of ourselves and others.

Embrace challenges

Never shy away from risks. you can end up stifling your own personal development and become more afraid to take risks fi you perpetually do the same thing over and over again, because that works. Life is an evolutionary process and things change all the time.

Never Compare

Don’t judge yourself by competing with others. Every one’s different. Some of us can jump higher than others, some of us can spell better; but it’s important that we only aspire to do and to be the best that we can and not to compare ourselves with the achievement of others.

Consult a physician

If the above technique do not seem to work, then see a counseller or a physician who can guide on further treatment. Low self esteem if untreated can lean to psychological problems too.

Leave me a comment and let me hear your opinion. If you’ve got any thoughts, comments or suggestions for things we could add, leave a comment!