No other element of human character is as important as self-esteem as it makes or breaks the ‘man’! Self-esteem is the defining factor between success and failure in human life. All the positive characteristics in a man such as confidence, amiability, critical reasoning and as such are derived from self-esteem.
If you feel and think of yourself low or feel like “I hate life”, you need to work on improving your self-esteem immediately.
Here are 7 proven tips that will help you improve and maintain your self-esteem during the tough time:
- Control Your Inner Critic
We all have an inner critic in ourselves. It works just like a knife; you can use it for both good and bad purpose!
If you are positive in your attitude, your inner critic will motivate you. If you are full of negative thoughts, the critic will bog you down with thoughts like ‘you are lazy and sloppy, you will not be able to do anything’ or ‘nobody likes you’
So, if you notice that kind of thoughts in yourself, just shut your inner critic down and plan something positive like how you could surprise your dearest friend.
- Develop Healthy Habits
Develop a few healthy habits such as going to gym or carring on workout every day or getting up early in the morning and having a good breakfast. To motivate yourself to perform the habit every day, think of the benefits associated with the habit. If you can master any kind of healthy habit, it will positively affect your lifestyle and thereby boost your self-esteem
- Do the Right Thing
Always try to do the things that you think ‘right’ in the deep down of your heart! Don’t do anything just to please somebody else. This will free you from the manipulation of others and toughen your self-esteem.
Doing the right thing isn’t always easy. Sometimes you won’t even know what the right thing is! Nevertheless, keep the focus on it. It will add firmness to your character and make people hold you in high esteem.
- Appreciate yourself
Take a 5 minutes break at the end of each day and think of the tasks for which you can appreciate yourself. Example could be: you listened to a friend’s gibbering patiently to support her, or you shared a nice dish with your next door neighbor. Appreciating yourself for the good tasks of the day will fill you with positive energy and remove your negative mood.
- Replace Perfectionism with Good Enough
Perfect people are good to see in movies or books, but they are really hard to find in real life. Perfectionism is a destructive thought that might affect you as well as people around you adversely. It can paralyze you from taking actions with thoughts like “you won’t be able to do it perfectly, so better leave it.”
When you do take actions, perfectionism can hit again. It can raise dissatisfaction with your own performances and actions that may plummet your feelings about yourself. So, aim for anything good enough and when you achieve that, slack it off.
- Deal Your Mistakes More Positively
It’s OK to make mistakes in course of life! Everybody makes mistake including the successful people we adore. In fact, successful people tend to make more mistakes than an average guy; we just don’t get to hear it as long as they share it in a public speaking.
If you stumble in life or in work, don’t beat yourself up. Instead, think of it as a new experience and try to find the positive sides of it. Change your viewpoint towards optimism and it will change how you see and think of yourself.
- Never Compare Yourself with Others
Don’t fall into the comparison trap! Comparison is a pit of despair and it will cover your mind with nothing but darkness. When you compare yourself with others, there is always someone better, smarter or richer than you.
Instead of comparison, think of the struggles you have done to come this far. Compare yourself only to yourself. This will motivate as well as strengthen your self-esteem.