Self Confidence

Self Confidence | What is self-esteem?

Charlotte bends her head in sadness as her grief poured out in a flood of uncontrollable tears because her employer told her to mob the floor. On the other hand, Henry jumped with excitement when his mother told him to mob the floor. Both Charlotte and Henry are given the same task, but their responses are different. Why? Each person’s reaction is proof of their self-esteem.

What is Self Esteem?

Self-esteem is the manner, way, or scale you as an individual evaluate your self-worth. In other words, you can refer to self-esteem as your description of yourself. For instance, Charlotte felt dejected because she esteems herself as a mere house-help while Henry esteems himself beyond a house help. Each person’s perception of themselves results in their reaction to the statement “go and mob the floor.” Your self-esteem determines how nice you treat yourself and how you allow others to treat you.

Kinds of Self Esteem

As an individual, you can either have low self-esteem, high self-esteem, or inflated self-esteem. 

Low self-esteem: 

  • People with low self-esteem see themselves as below average if they exhibit poor self-confidence and an unhealthy comparison of themselves with others. 
  • Comparing yourself to someone who you think is doing better than you are is very bad and a sign of low self-esteem. 
  • Another sign that you have low self-esteem is not seeking help when you need it. The truth is that you deserve the best, and you should prioritize your desire.
  • If you have difficulty accepting positive feedback and always blame yourself for any slightest mistake, you struggle with low self-esteem. 

Inflated Self Esteem:

  • One sign that your self-esteem is inflated is that you will always think of yourself above others. It’s beyond having a positive view of yourself, and it believes that you are better than all else and that no one is better than you. If you do not regard the opinion of others, you have an inflated self-esteem.
  • The effect of this kind of self-esteem is that you will be unable to build relationships with people. For any dream, you want to pursue. However, you will need others, their expertise and their opinions too. Hence, having inflated self-esteem. 

    I love my body: High self-esteem

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High- self-esteem:

  • Having high self-esteem is having a positive view of yourself, and it is the ideal view you should have of yourself. You will know you have high self-esteem if you love yourself and believe you deserve the good things of life. Loving your life and sticking with your values is proof of healthy high self-esteem.
  • Persons with high self-esteem can distinguish between constructive and destructive criticism. They can improve on the quality of their lives with that criticism. Rather than feel wrong about complaints, they look for what to change about their actions instead of feeling helpless about themselves.

Why should you have high self-esteem?

  • Coping with the stress of life: We live in a very competitive world where someone will be better than you in one aspect of life or the other. The only way to cope is by having good self-worth to not die of depression.
  • Excellent communication skills: If you have great self-esteem, you will communicate effectively with anyone from any social class. You will be authentic at every point in time. This skill will help them build beautiful relationships to help them achieve their dreams. 
  • Ability to Succeed: Persons with high self-worth can embrace new challenges. They are secure and rarely have a fear of failure. They can try again after temporary setbacks.
  • How to build a great self-esteem
  • Various factors such as childhood conditioning, comparison, physical outlook, life experiences, social pressure, thoughts, and temperament can result in one having either high, inflated, or low self-esteem.
  • Make positive statements. Instead of saying, “oh! I failed; I am a failure.” Say, “why was I unable to achieve this? I will apply this strategy”. With that resolution, you will overcome every thought of depression.
  • When you make mistakes, accept them and seek to correct them by resolving them to succeed in your next task.

Having gone through this article, you would have realized that self-esteem is your perception of yourself. There are also three kinds of self-esteem; high, inflated, and low. The best is increased self-esteem, and with the simple guide in this article, you will be able to migrate from either inflated or low self-esteem to high self-esteem. You are the best version of yourself, never think less of who you are.