Self-esteem is something we should all have but some of us might need to learn having it. Positive thinking will always help you do things better than a negative thinking might and self-esteem is essential for any activity we might do. That’s we dedicated this a special article today.
Self-esteem is necessary in order to flourish our spirit and reach our full potential. Without going in some area of extreme positivity, self-esteem helps us every day, in anything we might do. Today we’re going to talk about self-esteem in our day to day life and about a couple of small things we might all do in order to improve a little our self-image.
1. Stop comparing with the people around you
One of the major factors that decrease self-esteem is the comparison with those around us. You will never be on the winning side when you compare yourself to someone, because you will always see only the advantages at that person whereas when looking at yourself you will only see the disadvantages. There will never be equality.
2. Don’t compare your chapter 1 with someone else’s chapter 20
It’s easy to compare yourself with someone who already has results within your field. But if you compare your current level with the current level of that person, you’re going to be fast discouraged. Instead, how about comparing yourself to how that person was, when he was at the beginning? If you’re going to study the biography of that person today, you’ll be surprised of what their beginnings looked like and chances are that you’re going to empathize with their story, with their beginning. Self-trust and success are built in time and you have to be aware of the fact that everyone started somewhere, usually somewhere low. Therefore, if you’re 25 and compare yourself to someone who’s 40, take a look at his biography and find out where he was at 25. Only then you will have a balanced comparison and your self-esteem will be at the right level.
3. It’s not shameful to fall, but it’s shameful to stay there
As Silvester Stalone used to say, “Nothing and nobody is going to hit you harder and stronger than life.” That’s why it’s important to be aware of the fact that that it’s natural for things to not always go in the right direction. This affirmation might bring nothing new, but it’s important to be consciously aware of this aspect of life. Just the way it’s important to be aware of the fact that life is built 10% out of what is happening to us and 90% of the way we react to those things. Life is a succession of choices that we make and that will take us towards a certain destination. That’s why self-esteem is so essential in order to know how to react and know the destination of our life. Therefore, next time something not so positive happens, don’t ask yourself “Why is this happening to me?” but instead “What can I do in this situation?”. Real champions will always look for solutions.
4. You can’t always have your self-esteem around. You have to accept the fact that we’re people and it’s perfectly alright to have negative states as well.
Personal development is about balance, about hitting our targets, whatever these might be. That’s why it’s important to be aware of the fact that there will be times of laughter and times when you’re bound to cry. Accept the fact that you can’t always have your self-esteem at the highest level and that it’s ok to sometimes feel discouraged. Just don’t ignore the third point, alright?
5. Pay attention to what you listen to, where you get your information from and who you spend your time with.
One of the most important laws from the world of personal development say that we represent the average of the 5 people we mostly spend our time with. This is both from a financial perspective and from all the other aspects of life. On the other hand, we invite you to do the following exercise:
- Think of the five people you mostly spend your time with;
- Write down the qualities of each of them;
- Write down the faults of each;
- Calculate the average.
It just might be that the results are similar to your qualities and faults, however painful that might be. And through this exercise you can establish if you need new friends and if you, implicitly, need new people to encourage you, people that could boost your self-esteem. Because no matter how much we’d train our mind, we also need some external support, we need people we can count on.