You may have heard the words self-esteem and self-confidence before, but do you really know what they mean? More importantly, do you have enough of them? Read on to learn more about self-esteem, self-image and confidence and why they are so important.
What Is Self-Esteem?
The word esteem has to do with how you feel about something – that is, how worthy or valuable you think it is. So, as you can guess, self-esteem has to do with how much you value yourself, or how much you feel you are worth.
People with healthy levels of self-esteem know that they are worth a lot without being snobby or thinking they are better than other people.
Having a healthy self-esteem is important because when you feel good about yourself, you typically make smarter choices, you respect yourself, honour yourself, and go after new opportunities. People with a healthy self-esteem generally live happier lives because they have a more positive view about themselves.
Most people’s self-esteem fluctuates a little bit throughout their life. There are some days when you might be feeling really good about yourself, and then others when you don’t feel so hot. This is totally normal. On days when you feel like your self-esteem is low, try the following things to pick your self-esteem back up:
- Get a sheet of paper, and jot down all the things that you are good at. Then, write down all of the awards and/or accomplishments that you have achieved (don’t overlook even the smallest one!). Cut those sentences up into strips and place them into a bag. Stand in front of a mirror and pull the strips out one by one, reading your accomplishment or strength out loud. Go ahead, brag about yourself a little bit. It’s not going to hurt anyone, and you will feel better and possible more proud after doing it.
- Give to others. Often times, when you give back to others, it can give you a whole new appreciation of yourself. It doesn’t have to be money; it could be your time, energy, or ability. You will feel good about helping those who needed what you offered.
- Monitor and control all those negative thoughts that might be creeping up into your head. Thoughts like I’m a loser, I’m stupid, and I will never be good enough do not serve anyone. So, stop thinking those negative stinking thoughts, think positive ones instead!
Self Confidence is related to self-esteem, but it’s a little bit different. Self confidence has to do with how confident or assured you feel in a certain ability. This ability could possibly be a new or challenging situation, or it could be a skill.
A person can feel self-confident in one area and not confident at all in another. For example, someone might be really confident in their dancing ability; meaning they believe that they are a good dancer. However, that same person might be less confident in their painting skills.
If you generally think that you can take on new challenges and succeed, you are doing well in the self-confidence department. If you are feeling intimidated or freaked out by new opportunities and you are not sure you can succeed or you don’t even try, your self-confidence could use a bit of a boost.
And what better way than to try that challenging task? You will never know how good or bad you are if you never do something. And should you fail, you get right back up because you have learnt one way of how not to do it!
What Is Self-Image?
Your self image is your own personal perspective of your appearance and personal experiences, and how that plays into your life. Think of your self-image as a sum of your life experiences and your future hopes and dreams. If you generally view yourself in a positive light, it is likely that others will view you positively too.
And that’s the truth, people will generally treat you the way you treat yourself, and others. Someone who is confident never compares self with others, but compliments others on their good points. And someone who has a high self-esteem values others as much as he does him/herself; and someone with the right self-image is not toxic, and doesn’t tolerate toxic people either.
If you don’t have it all, remember that we are all work in progress, the most important thing is not abandoning the project – Project You!