Nine Tips to Improve Your Self-Esteem
Self-esteem is something you earn through confidence and
self-mastery. The reward it earns includes the respect you feel
for yourself as well as the respect we see in how others feel
towards you. This is a critical element in your personal growth
when building a business, a personal relationship and even
events that happen around you. How to see yourself creates a
filter for how you see everything else. By building your
self-esteem, you will see the world as a more abundant place and
that will reflect itself in your business development, the
support from your customers and partners as well as those you
know and love and those you're destined to meet. Strong
self-esteem can even influence how you handle being stuck in
traffic. Building self-esteem is not a very difficult task, but
it is something that you constantly develop in life. When hard
days come along, it is the strong foundation of your
self-mastery that will help you through. Here are nine tips that
may help you build the proper foundation you need for improved
self-esteem.
1. Choose your peers. Surround yourself with people who are
positive and supportive, and avoid those who are cynical and
negative. This will generate a huge swell of positive feelings
in you. Your self-esteem is a reflection of the company you
keep, so seek out people who inspire you and hold you to the
high standards you hold within yourself. True friends will
always love you for who you are but will also support your
continued growth and development as they seek out those things
for themselves. Choose your peers wisely because they can have
the greatest influence on how you behave and how you feel about
yourself.
2. Be clear about what you want to achieve in life. Set goals,
and take action. The goal itself is what you're working towards
and is not a todo item. Set yourself up for success by planning
the steps towards your goals. When you take action on a step,
congratulate yourself for moving closer to your goal! Feel the
satisfaction you deserve to get from each step.
3. Be positive about yourself. Remind yourself about your good
qualities, your accomplishments and how you help your family,
friends, others and yourself. That doesn't mean you should
ignore things you want to change and you shouldn't make excuses
for such things either. Accept the here and now and decide what
you really want and what you can do about it. Don't make the
mistake of brooding over what you don't have. Look at where you
are today and have gratitude for the opportunity to keep going!
4. Accept criticism about yourself. You don't have to get upset
or defensive. Choose your inward and outward response. This
isn't always easy, but criticism can be empowering! You have the
choice to accept it and accept yourself as you are today. That
doesn't mean you don't desire to change something about
yourself, but be thankful for who you are here and now. Cynical
people often criticize others because it makes them feel better.
This means the criticism may not even be about you so let it
roll and be the master of yourself.
5. Be ready to fail. Sometimes success comes from getting the
mistakes out of the way. After you've made one you can decide
what to try next and figure out what really does work. Did you
walk perfectly the very first time or did you give up because
that first step didn't go exactly as planned? Success is
developed through doing. Sometimes that means a failure. A
mentor of mine often jokes that his success comes from the fact
that he is able to make mistakes more quickly than others. When
you move through your mistakes and simply continue to take
action, you will develop the confidence and self-esteem that
only experience can give you. Failure is an option, so accept it
and use it for your own benefit.
6. Measure yourself only against yourself. Life isn't a race.
When you use someone else as the yardstick for your own
development, there will always be the perception that someone
else is beating you. Set yourself up for success by focusing on
your own goals and values and take action based on your own
achievements.
7. Never put yourself down. Sometimes things don't go exactly as
planned. That's ok. Dust yourself off and keep going. When you
allow mistakes and failures to become more than they really are,
you become controlled by them. Sometimes your life will have
challenges. Accept them and even embrace them because every
other person has them too.
8. Dress for your best. When you imagine yourself at your very
best, what are you wearing? How does that compare to what you're
wearing now? If you work at home, sure it can be fun to work in
your bathrobe but are you successful in your bathrobe? You don't
need expensive, fancy clothes. Just dress in a way that empowers
you and helps bring out the success you carry within you.
9. Get out there with new people. Join a speaking group like
Toastmasters. It's an excellent organization that has helped all
types of people develop their speaking skills and their
self-confidence in front of other individuals and groups. There
are other networking groups that also bring people together who
share your hobbies and will help you to enjoy yourself for the
things you do.