What is self-esteem?
Self-Esteem is “The belief and confidence in your own ability and value.”
Do you suffer from low self-esteem? If so, you probably spend most of your life trying hard to stay well within your comfort zone.
You might feel that everyone seems to know what’s best for you. (which in reality is only what they believe is best for them). And no doubt you very rarely try to do new things.
Having a high self-esteem simply means that you have faith in your abilities. That you trust yourself to make decisions and your belief in yourself is strong. Strong enough, that you know you can recover if things don’t quite work out as planned.
Think your level of self-esteem is low? Or, maybe you just think it could do with a boost? Here are five things, guaranteed to help!
1. Accept that you are you, and that’s okay.
Every person is an individual and has the right to live the life they want. No matter who you are, or how successful you may be, there will always people who’ll say you can do better for yourself, but It’s important you live your life, doing what feels right for you.
It’s okay to listen to advice from others, but make sure that in the end, the decision you make is the one that’s best for you. Being a ‘people pleaser’ is a very frustrating way to live your life. It might feel good in the short term, but you’ll never be truly fulfilled until you start doing things for you.
2. Stop comparing yourself to others.
As I just mentioned, you’re not supposed to be like anyone else. You’re an individual and the only one who can be you. Your perspectives, abilities, hopes and dreams are exclusively yours.
By constantly comparing your achievements to those of others, you’re diluting your own skills and achievements. Everyone has something unique to bring to the table, just because your gift isn’t the same as someone else’s doesn’t mean it’s less useful or relevant.
3. Be grateful.
Believe it or not, you have so much to be grateful for. I can guarantee that you have many, many skills, abilities, memories, successes, possessions and people in your life that thousands of people would love to have. By trying to be like some one else, you’re detracting from what makes you and your life special and you to fail to recognize all the good things you have already. Before you go to bed each night, write down three things you’re grateful for from that day and why.
You’ll be surprised at just how lucky you are already. The simple act of being grateful can make a substantial difference to your outlook.
4. Create a list of your successes and accomplishments and review it often.
Everyone has been successful many times in their lives and has achieved many things. Our problem, is when we take on a project, we often tend to get overwhelmed by what’s still to be done and forget to give ourselves credit for how far we’ve already come.
Take some time to notice just how successful you’ve been in the past. Consider what you can learn from those previous achievements and put those attributes to work on your future projects.
5. Do things that stretch your comfort zone.
It’s a fact of life that anything that doesn’t grow, dies. Make a pact with yourself to try something new occasionally. All clichés are born from fact and it’s certainly true that ‘any experience that doesn’t kill you, will make you stronger’. Even if the element of growth was that you found out it wasn’t an enjoyable experience!
Any time you feel fearful about a new endeavor, as long as it isn’t life threatening, see it as an opportunity to grow!
If you follow the tips above on a consistent basis, you’ll be amazed at the difference it’ll make to your self-esteem.
I’d love to hear about how well they worked for you, so let me know in the comments 😉
