When you stare at the mirror each morning, what do you see? Are you pleased with the person staring back at you or do you see them as a failure? Your answer is an indicator of your self-esteem.
Many of us dare not speak the truth that we aren’t completely happy with ourselves. It’s not a pleasant thing to admit after all. Thankfully, that’s something we can work on changing.
Understanding self-esteem
Before we can work on changing how we feel about ourselves, we need to discuss a little something known as self-esteem.
According to the University of Maryland’s Department of Sociology, self-esteem is a person’s evaluation of their own worth. Your evaluation of your own worth could be positive, but it can also skew negative.
Remember that question we asked at the start of this article? You can pose it to yourself if you want to quickly gauge your current level of self-esteem.
Of course, that is not the most scientific way to gauge a person’s self-esteem. Crucially, even your own evaluation may not always be accurate. There may be aspects of yourself that you are not recognizing and they are contributing to your unfairly negative self-evaluation.
We want to take steps to feel better about ourselves. You can approach that challenge in a variety of ways. Detailed in the rest of the article are some of the most actionable steps we came up with.
Make a change in your career
One of the main reasons why so many adults view themselves negatively is because of their work status.
Having a job doesn’t automatically mean that you no longer experience feelings of inadequacy or incompetence. If anything, your job can just magnify those emotions. People stuck in bad work situations may feel unfulfilled or just generally frustrated.
Does all of that sound familiar? Don’t hesitate to take action if it does.
Try to bring about changes at work by looking into promotion opportunities. Ask your superiors what you can do to inch your career a bit further.
If things are still not clicking, consider exploring other job opportunities. There may be an opportunity out there that will fit you perfectly.
You’ll be amazed by the impact that change can have on your life and your self-esteem.
Set a goal and continuously work towards it
Video games appeal to many people because they provide nice little dopamine hits regularly. Most games shower you with praise for completing relatively simple tasks. Maybe it’s a bit much at times, but it still feels good.
Replicating that feeling in real life is possible. You can do that by first setting a goal.
The goal can be anything. It could be learning a skill, saving a certain amount of money, or getting a good performance review. Just make sure you keep working towards it.
Every bit of progress you make towards that goal will make you feel better about yourself. When you finally achieve your goal, the feeling of euphoria you’ll get will be unlike anything you’ve ever experienced.
Recognize setbacks for what they truly are
Lastly, you need to understand what a setback can truly do to you.
When something derails our plans or makes us feel bad, it’s easy to wallow in the pit of disappointment it leaves behind. You can lose sight of every good thing you’ve done because of that lone setback.
We’re not telling you to ignore your setbacks, but we are urging you to recognize them better. Remember that they aren’t permanent. They may set you back for a bit, but regaining your progress is possible.
You’ll start to feel better about yourself when you realize that setbacks can only keep you down for so long. The bounceback you show will have a more lasting impact.
Low self-esteem does not have to be your constant companion. Try out the steps we detailed here if you want to start feeling genuinely better about yourself.
Featured image courtesy of Unsplash/Matthew Hamilton
