Research suggests people with high self-esteem show more resilience to distress than people with low self-esteem.
Plus, when your self-esteem is high, you feel better, and eventually, perform better in every aspect of life.
The question is: How do you improve your self-esteem?
Here are four tips…
Use Positive Affirmations
Positive affirmations can be pretty effective when you use them the right way. But, they need to be realistic.
For instance, “I am the most successful person in my industry”, can be less believable than “I am a successful and happy person”.
So, make your affirmations more believable by making little tweaks.
Identify Your Strengths and Cultivate Them
One of the reasons why we feel low self-esteem is not identifying our competencies. So, find your core competencies, skills, and strengths and develop them.
For instance, if you are good at running, join a running club and train for marathons. Or, maybe you love writing a journal; create a blog and start writing on the topics you love.
Avoid Self-Criticism and Love Yourself
Unfortunately, we tend to go into the self-critique mode when we are feeling low on self-esteem, which brings us down further.
What you want to do is, replace self-criticism with self-compassion.
Think about the things that you’d say to a friend who is feeling low on self-esteem; do the same for yourself.
Affirm Your Worth
Self-worth and self-esteem are closely related. To increase your self-esteem, you can affirm your worth to yourself.
For instance, if a company declines your job application, list the qualities that make you a good employee.