What Is Self Esteem and How Do I Get It?

Self Esteem

You can't touch it, but it affects how you feel. You can't see it but it's there when you look at yourself in the mirror. You can't hear it, but it's there every time you talk about yourself. Self esteem is how much you value yourself and how important you think you are. It's knowing you are worthy of love and respect and accepting your limitations and boundaries. It's how you see yourself and how you feel about your achievements.

Why Is Self Esteem So Important?

Good self esteem is important because it helps you to hold your head high and feel proud of yourself and what you can do. It gives you the courage to try new things and the power to believe in yourself. It lets you respect yourself, even when you make mistakes, and when you respect yourself, other peope usually respect you too. It also helps you to make good choices about your mind and body. If you think you are important, you'll be more likely to make good choices.

Are You an Optimist or a Pessimist?

Develop Powerful Optimism HERE!

by Chris Widener
I have been giving some thought lately to optimism and pessimism. Basically, these are attitudes. Attitudes that shape and formulate our entire existence. I mean, have you ever met a happy pessimist? Of course not.

•  In short, our optimism or pessimism is this:
•  The way we interpret the past
•  The way we experience and view the present
• The way we imagine the future

Have you given much thought about how your attitude, whether you are an optimist or a pessimist, affects your business, organization or school? Have you thought` about how it affects you personally? And what about the team you are a part of?

20 Foods to Give You Energy

Almonds, salmon, blueberries and 17 more foods that will make you more alert, energetic and ready to take on the world.
It’s three in the afternoon, your energy is flagging and all you want to do is take a nap, but instead you have to sit through a boring meeting. While you could just have a second – or seventh – cup of coffee, you could also have some pumpkin seeds, an apple, a few red bell pepper slices with hummus or a piece of dark chocolate. These 20 foods can help relieve fatigue, sharpen your focus and give you the jolt of energy that you need to avoid falling asleep at your desk.

How to Build Self Confidence: 6 Essential and Timeless Tips

“Never bend your head. Always hold it high. Look the world straight in the face.”
Helen Keller

“Whatever we expect with confidence becomes our own self-fulfilling prophecy.”
Brian Tracy

“Confidence is courage at ease.”
Daniel Maher

I believe that one of the most common wishes is simply to feel more confident in various situations in life.
But how?
Confident friends may say: “Well, just be confident, man!”. However, to a person that doesn’t feel that confident this piece of advice may not be very helpful. At all.
There are however some time-tested and timeless advice. And in this article I’ll explore some of those tips.
Now, I hope you will find something useful in this article to help you improve and maintain your own levels of confidence.
1. Take action. Get it done.

“Having once decided to achieve a certain task, achieve it at all costs of tedium and distaste. The gain in self-confidence of having accomplished a tiresome labor is immense.” Thomas A. Bennett

8 Ways to Be More Confident: Live the Life of Your Dreams

By Lori Deschene

 
“With realization of one’s own potential & self confidence in one’s ability, one can build a better world.” ~Dalai Lama
For the vast majority of my life I didn’t believe I could do most of the things I wanted to do.
I knew I wanted to be in a relationship, but I feared that if I got into one I’d do something to mess it up.
I wanted to perform on Broadway, but even moving to New York City didn’t give me the courage to audition.
I wanted to be a writer, but I thought it was far too difficult to get published, and therefore didn’t even try until I turned 27.
Maybe you’ve never been as unsure of yourself as I used to be, but you can likely relate to that feeling of wanting to do something but feeling terrified to start. This not only limits your potential in life; it also minimizes your ability to make a positive impact on the world around you.
There’s a lot that goes into overcoming those fears. You may need to challenge limiting beliefs formed years ago, or take yourself out of a situation where other people undermine your abilities. One thing that will definitely help is working on your confidence.
Not sure if confidence can be learned? I asked this question on the Tiny Buddha Facebook page to see what readers had to say and then used some of their responses to shape these 8 steps outlined below:

Assumptions that Continue to Influence Self-Confidence

In response to external influences, people develop assumptions; some of these are constructive and some are harmful. Several assumptions that can interfere with self-confidence and alternative ways of thinking are:
Assumption: “I must always have love or approval from every significant person in my life.”
Alternative: This is a perfectionistic, unattainable goal. It is more realistic and desirable to develop personal standards and values that are not completely dependent on the approval of others.
Assumption: “I must be thoroughly competent, adequate, and achieving in all important areas of my life.”
Alternative: This again is a perfectionistic, unattainable goal and suggests that personal worth is determined by achievement. Achievement can be satisfying but does not make you more worthy. Instead, worth is an inherent quality and all people possess it.
Assumption: “My past remains all important and control my feelings and behaviors in the present.”
Alternative: While it is true that your confidence was especially vulnerable to external influences during your childhood, as you grow older you can gain awareness and perspective on what those influences have been. In doing so, you can choose which influences you will continue to allow to have an effect on your life. You don’t have to be helpless in the face of past events.

Strategies for Developing Confidence

Seven Strategies for Wealth and Happiness - By Jim Rohn

Brilliant ! A must read for the budding entrepreneur.
A tremendous book on success principles written in 'layman's' terms. It is full of great quotes like, "rarely will your income exceed your personal development", and "don't send your ducks to eagle school - all you will get is unhappy ducks!" Jim Rohn is able to get across that success is not for the chosen few, but for anyone that is prepared to follow some simple principles - principles that are portrayed in an uncomplicated form in this gem of a book. A must read for anyone that wants to get ahead in life.
Find out more here.