There’s a dark side to the self-improvement industry. If you’re into any form of self-improvement (self-help, personal-development, personal-empowerment, etc.), there’s a good chance that you’ve been affected by it.

What is it?

Working on improving yourself can actually affect your self-esteem in a negative way. You see, when you decide that you want to improve something, you can get caught up in focusing on what’s wrong with you.

In order to decide you want to change something, you first need to acknowledge that there’s something in your life that you don’t like. This acknowledgment is important, but it’s easy to end up keeping your focus there. Keeping your focus on your problems is a guaranteed recipe for getting yourself down.

Does this mean you shouldn’t work on improving yourself and your life? Of course not, wanting to improve is a worthy endeavor.

So, how do you endeavor to improve your life without ending up feeling bad about yourself? Remember why you want to improve your life and also acknowledge what is already going well.

Remember Why Do You Want To Improve?

You have the power to choose where you put your focus. If you want to change something, first acknowledge that there’s a problem, then decide how you would like to change it.

Once you know where your want to go, keep your focus there instead of the problem itself.

Remember to Acknowledge What’s Already Going Well

Take some time to look at yourself and your life and acknowledge what’s already good about them. If there are areas of your life that are going well, appreciate yourself for doing such a good job.

Taking time to do this regularly will help you remember that you are a capable person and deserve to congratulate yourself. Really, go ahead and do it now, you deserve it!

Conclusion

Improving yourself is a worthy goal, but don’t get caught up in focusing on the problems in your life. Avoid any potential blows to your self esteem. Keep your focus on your goals and remember to regularly spend time acknowledging what’s already going well.

How Your Self-Esteem Affects Your Life

Self-esteem is simply how you judge your own ability to deal with the challenges of your life.

When you have low self-esteem, you are always worried that you won’t be able to succeed. You worry about what others might think of you. You worry that you lack the skills and abilities to deal with the problems and challenges that life might throw your way. In short, you are scared of life and other people and this fear holds you back from living life to the fullest.

Conversely,when you feel confident in yourself and your abilities, you are willing to take more risks in life. You believe in your ability to handle any challenges that life might throw your way and you rarely worry about what others think of you. This fearlessness allows you to take full advantage of everything that life has to offer.

Here are some specific examples to help illustrate…

10 Benefits of Having High Self Esteem

1. You are more resilient to life’s difficulties because you are less likely to give in to despair or defeat.
2. You are more confident in your abilities, so you are more willing to risk being creative. Higher creativity leads to more success and higher pay.
3. You are more ambitious in all areas of life because you believe you can achieve your goals.
4. You will enjoy more nurturing and supportive relationships. We usually hang out with people who are like us. If you are confident in yourself, you will also attract confident, healthy, successful people into your life.
5. You will treat others with more respect and love because you do not perceive them as threats that could hurt you. When you treat others with respect, they will treat you in the same manner.
6. You will feel better in general. You will wake up feeling confident and expectant of good things for the new day.
7. You will worry less since you are confident in your ability to deal with adversity. This will allow you to use your time and energy for constructive purposes instead.
8. Fortune favors the bold. When you feel confident in yourself, you are willing to take more risks because you know that you can deal with whatever comes your way. People who are willing to take more risks end up being more successful in life.
9. You will enjoy a fuller social life. When you feel good about yourself, you don’t hesitate to talk to new people. Each new person you talk to is a potential new friend, business partner, customer, or romantic interest.
10. You will be better at using criticism to improve yourself. Because your self-image is strong, being criticized is no longer an emotionally crippling event. You can objectively listen to the criticism and decide if there is any truth to it or not. If there is, you can use that truth to improve yourself.

Conclusion

Too many people are struggling with the debilitating effects of low self-esteem. If you are one of them, don’t despair. It is possible to feel better about yourself!

By following a few simple exercises, you can start enjoying the benefits of high self-esteem. Don’t hold yourself back any longer. Get started today!

Well, you can, and it really isn’t difficult when you know how.

However, before we talk about how to boost your self-esteem, it would be helpful if you first understand why you have low self-esteem in the first place.

Why You Have Low Self-Esteem

Low self-esteem develops as a result of long-term negative reinforcement. Constant, ongoing reminders of our failures and dissapointments from both others and ourselves.

As a child, If you were being good, you heard very little from your parents. But if you were being bad, you were punished. This type of parenting tends to leave a child with an unbalanced impression of themselves since they only ever heard bad things about themselves.

Unfortunately, children usually pick this habit up and they end up ignoring their own successes and berating themselves for their failures as they grow up.

If you’ve just spent your whole life hearing and saying mostly negative things about yourself. It’s no wonder your self-esteem is suffering!

If you want to boost your self-esteem, you need to start balancing your perspective. Start acknowledging your achievements and successes in life. Here are 3 ways you can get started today.

3 Easy Ways To Boost Your Self-Esteem

1. List Your Past Successes

Start by remembering and acknowledging your past successes. We all tend to remember more of our failures and forget about our achievements as we go through life.

To correct this, take some time and write down a list of at least 50 things you’ve accomplished in your life.

Think of things like hitting a home run in little league, getting an A in a difficult class, graduating from school, saving up enough money to buy your first car. All of these of things are accomplishments that you deserve to be acknowledged for.

Once you have your list completed, keep it and review it any time you feel your self-esteem lagging.

2. Keep A Victory Journal

Focusing on the past isn’t enough, you need to start acknowledging the success of your present life as well.

Keep a daily victory journal where you write down all the successes of your day. You can use old fashioned pen and paper, or you can keep an electronic journal on your computer.

Keep track of everything that you are proud of yourself for accomplishing that day. Nothing is to small. If you took the time to eat a healthy meal that day, feel free to recognize yourself for it. You deserve it!

By writing down your successes, you will tend to remember them better. A mind that is full of images of your achievements will go a long way to boosting your self-esteem. And just like the successes of your past, you can also refer to this journal any time your self-esteem needs another boost.

3. Surround Yourself With Reminders Of Your Success

Another great way to remind yourself of your accomplishments is to surround yourself with visual reminders of them. You should put your trophies on display and frame that newspaper clipping about yourself. Hang your diplomas and certificates in a prominent spot. If you have pictures from award cermonies or other events where you were being recognized at, hang those up as well.

Every time you see these things, they will serve to remind you of just how successful you really are.

Conclusion

Doing these three things on a regular basis will reinforce your mind with positive thoughts and images of yourself. As the positive thoughts grow, the negative ones will be crowded out and will slowly disappear. While this process is happening, your self-esteem will see a steady improvement. The longer you keep it up, the better you will feel about yourself.

Don’t waste any more time. Take action now to boost your self-esteem and start enjoying a happier, more successful life.

PS – Join us for our next post where we will be discussing the benefits of high self-esteem.