The Key to Self-Esteem
Self-esteem, like happiness, is a state of mind. It can make you
feel happy, cheerful and confident. It can also make you feel
worthless, unwanted and weak. Self-esteem can best be compared
to a powerful battery. When the battery is fully charged, the
individual feels confident and raring to go; when the battery is
run down the individual feels low and wants to hide.
Obviously, individuals with low self-esteem cannot be expected
to do well in life. They will approach every issue with a lack
of confidence even though they may be fully capable of doing a
job. That is why self-belief is considered the bedrock of
self-esteem. It gives an individual the extra confidence that
makes all the difference between an achiever and a failure.
So how do you inculcate a sense of self-belief in yourself? You
will be making a big mistake if you start seeing yourself as the
most important man in your field. This cannot be called
self-belief or self-esteem. Instead it is conceit, and as
everyone knows conceit is a dangerous quality. It generates
false confidence, which often becomes a source of woes.
What you need is healthy self-esteem. This means that you
should look at yourself as an individual who is at par with his
peer group, who has nothing to feel ashamed of, and who looks at
all issues with a positive frame of mind. Healthy self-esteem
also means that you are able to differentiate between humility
and self-effacement, between arrogance and modesty, between
complacency and hyperactivity.
However, to do so you must learn to accept yourself as any
other individual who will have some strengths and some
weaknesses, and who will have some good days and some bad days.
You must learn to ride out the good with the bad. Most
important, you must believe in the clich