How to Boost Your Self-Esteem

How to Boost Your Self Esteem
by Jodi-A

Walker
"If you have no confidence in self you are twice defeated in the race of life.”
"With confidence, you have won the race before you have started.”
-Marcus Garvey

Confidence and having a powerful self-image is very important. Confidence and self-esteem motivate you, when other people do not. Self esteem encourages you when everything and everyone else does not. It is the underbelly of your drive, motivation, and determination.

The question that may be on your mind is, "how is it that some people have a high self-esteem compared to others?” This is because some people's self-confidence has been nurtured from an early age. Their opinions were always respected. They were always encouraged to express themselves whether verbally or otherwise. They were always supported in their endeavors. For people who have low self-esteem, they have encountered contradictory circumstances. They were not supported in their endeavors. They were not encouraged to express themselves; and if they did so, they did so on a limited basis. Their opinions were not encouraged and, hence, shied away from truthfully expressing their views on how they really felt about a particular situation. Because their opinions, actions, and endeavors were not valued then it became easy to devalue themselves—and to allow others to devalue them. This self-deprecating and -negating behavior is intensified when people with low self-esteem compare themselves (or when others compare them) to other individuals. They begin to feel as if they are not enough. They begin to feel as if they are not enough. They begin to feel and think that they are inadequate.
If you are one of those people with low self esteem, here are some tips to help boost your self confidence:

Write 50 different things that you like about yourself over a five day period. This will help you to celebrate and appreciate your uniqueness. It will begin to teach you self love. This helps to focus on your strengths instead of your weaknesses. (A tip that could help you with this activity is to think of two positive things to counteract a negative thing about yourself.)

Use personal development and self improvement tools and resources. When you love and accept yourself, then you will do everything, which is possible, to develop and improve on yourself.

Help other people who are less fortunate. This will shift the focus off of you for a second and place it instead on other people. In this way, you will move from the depressed state of mind when you are in a self-deprecating and -negating mode. Also, after you help someone else, you start to feel better about yourself.

Socialize and make connections with the right people. Join clubs, groups, and
social media networks and socialize with people with common interests. These should also be the right people in the sense that they encourage and support you in in your endeavors, dreams, and goals. They should also be able to give you sound advice and constructive criticism when you do something wrong.

Formulate a life purpose for yourself. Think of what a perfect world would be like for you, then write it down. Write down your dreams, gifts, and talents. Then formulate your life purpose which includes what you intend to do with your gifts, goals, or talents to better the world around you.

Set short- and long-term goals to achieve your life purpose. First develop an overall plan to accomplish your life purpose. Then set long-term and short-term goals to achieve each section of the plan.

Celebrate your successes. After you have accomplished a goal you should celebrate by doing something good for yourself. You can go to the spa and get a massage, buy yourself something nice at the mall or treat yourself to a cone of ice cream.

Do not attempt to be like another person. Be the best person you can possibly be. It is okay to desire to improve yourself mentally, physically, socially and emotionally. But never attempt to be someone else. You will be putting yourself in self-sabotage mode reject yourself so that you can be someone else.
Stand up for your core values or belief systems. When you love and appreciate you will do everything in your power to protect your core values.This is because this forms the foundation of who you are as an individual.If you do not defend your individuality, then people will always treat you like a doormat and this, in turn, will activate the self-destruct mode within you.