The Magic Of High Self Esteem

The term, Self Esteem, is tossed around in everyday conversation but most people do not know the exact meaning of it. Most people think that self esteem is the other name for self confidence. Of course, self confidence is included in the definition of self esteem but self esteem covers much more than self confidence. True magic happens once you understand self esteem and learn how to have higher self esteem than you now have.

You may be surprised to know that there are millions of people that are at the height of their self confidence but have very poor self esteem. In fact, most of the human race fall into this category. The most common examples are movie actors, comedians, and singers who excel when performing and who are extremely insecure out of the public eye.

So what is self esteem, exactly? Self esteem is what we think and say about ourselves to ourselves.

If you trash talk yourself, you have to stop. You wouldn't verbally beat up a friend, so don't do it to yourself either. Take out a sheet of paper and make a list of all the bad things you think and say about yourself. Now make another list of positive things you could say instead. Whenever you catch yourself thinking or saying something negative, immediately stop and counter it with something positive. This will take some practice, but you will eventually be able to stop all the trash talk and think and feel much better about yourself.

Did you know that self esteem and health are inextricably linked? By keeping healthy, you will feel motivated to identify and achieve your life goals, which leads to higher self esteem. In turn, having high self esteem means that you value yourself enough to want to look after your health!

In adolescents, even the most confident of adolescents can grow up to experience low self esteem and to feel unworthy. Adult life can be tough and it can sometimes feel like "survival of the fittest" so adolescents act out as a defense mechanism to cover low self esteem.

One of the easiest steps to improve self esteem is to push yourself to do "difficult" things.

This breeds a sense of pride.

Pride in yourself and your accomplishments will give you a higher opinion of yourself (the esteem you have for yourself). By using your willpower to actually do some of these things, your self esteem will grow and along with it your perception of your own abilities. This in turn will create a momentum in your life where success breeds more success.

Never compare yourself with others. Every single person on the Earth has one attribute or another that you do not have. You have attributes that they do not have.

Comparisons are the easiest way to start feeling inferior and losing most of your self esteem. Instead, think about yourself in terms of your achievements. This will help you build or rebuild your self-confidence and it will make you feel better when dealing with your peer group at the same time. The result is self esteem magic in action.

The greater your self confidence, the greater your self esteem.

Focus on your achievements. If you take the time to think about it, you will realize that you have achieved many things in your life. It doesn't matter what these achievements are. It only matters that they have been recognized by at least one other person. We all have such achievements. List them and remember what it meant to you to have them recognized by someone else.

It doesn't matter what you think about your overall life at present. If you are honest with yourself you will make a long list of positive things you have done and that list will make you feel better about yourself. Every small thing you are proud of should be added to your list. The fact that you are focusing on positives will also help you to increase your level of self esteem.

One of the most important things you should be aware of is the erroneous belief that you need to be different from how you are in order to be loved. This idea causes a great deal of misery. Unless you are happy within, you'll never be truly satisfied with what you do. Liking yourself unconditionally is the key to happiness. Yes, you need to like yourself as you are and grow from there.

With improved self-esteem, your relationships with others will improve as well.

You don't have to be perfect because even the most loved person in the world make’s mistakes! You don't even have to do your best. You don't have to prove anything. You're all right because you're all right, and lovable exactly as you are.

I'm in your corner cheering you on!
By: James DeSantis

Jim DeSantis is a retired TV News Anchor and News Director who created "Self Esteem Magic", a guaranteed step-by-step approach to start raising your Self Esteem in one weekend. Change your life starting this weekend - here - "Self Esteem Magic".

The Babe Ruth Self Esteem Formula

Would you like to never ever feel insecure again? Everybody feels insecure in certain situations, but the difference is that the confident person always maintains the feeling of self worth and love they have for themselves, even when they are feeling normal insecurity. This attitude is true self esteem magic and it's something that can be learned.

Courage is your primary ingredient towards developing high self esteem.

Taking a chance on yourself takes some courage but, look at it this way, what is there to lose? The difference between winners and everyone else is that winners go for whatever they desire, even when they fear failure. They have the courage to take a risk.

Let me illustrate with a baseball analogy. It's a fact that "Babe" Ruth, who held the home-run record in baseball for decades, still holds the record for most strike-outs! The "Babe" swung at almost any pitch that even remotely looked as one he could hit. He was not afraid to strike-out because he knew that home-runs win games. He is remembered for the home-run record not his strike-out record and that made him a winner for himself and the New York Yankees.

Do you realize that you have already had many turns at bat? You have already set your own personal home-run and strike-out records!

If you have low self esteem, you probably keep reflecting on the things you don't like about yourself, your strike-outs, but if you start counting your home-runs, you just might be surprised.

What do I mean by home runs?

What do your friends like about you? These are you home-runs!

Have you ever asked yourself that? Or even better, have you ever asked them? When you have listed all the things you like about yourself and the things your friends like about you, a magical thing begins to happen. Your home-runs take on a power to make you feel good about yourself. The negative things, your strike-outs, seem smaller and less harmful. This is self esteem magic in action.

An important thing you should guard against is the erroneous belief that you need to be different from how you are right now in order to be accepted. This idea causes a great deal of misery. Unless you like yourself right now, you will never be truly satisfied with what you accomplish in the future.

Have you ever seen photos or films of Babe Ruth? He was not a handsome guy. He had a pug nose and pot belly but he had women chasing him because he projected high self esteem based on his home-runs and that made him attractive. He liked himself unconditionally.

Liking yourself unconditionally is the key to happiness and success. Yes, you need to "love" yourself unconditionally but you must first "like" yourself as you are and grow from there into loving yourself.

With improved self-esteem, your relationships will blossom as well. You do not have to be perfect because even the most loved person in the world has their share of strike-outs! You do not even have to do your best all the time. You can have your share of strike-outs and not feel badly about it. Look, you do not have to prove anything to anyone. You are all right because you are all right, and lovable exactly as you are.

Concentrate on simple things that you can change right now that will make you feel better about yourself right now! Think of these as base hits - singles, doubles, triples.

There are changes you can make right now that may get you some base hits, changes in your life and how you live it.

Ask yourself: Are you happy in your job? Is there something else you would rather do for a living? Change it!

What about your relationships and your social life? If you would like to be more assertive for example, then start working on that immediately.

Whatever you feel you need to change then go ahead and do it. Get a few base hits before your go for the homers!

To improve self esteem, make a list of positive comments about yourself that are based upon your positive attributes. Leave out any negatives. It does not matter if they are positive physical attributes that you like about yourself or if they are talents you have. Challenge yourself to add one positive comment about yourself every day. Look for opportunities to affirm yourself positively. Look for base hits.

Once you accept yourself and who you are each day, the real magic begins to happen inside you.

Look, there are many things about your personality and character and your life that you may never be able to change. Do not allow those to hold you back. Not everyone can pitch a no-hitter. Some people play short-stop, some play center-field, but anyone can get some base hits and homers along the way, even you! Learn to accept those things that are beyond changing and understand that you can still be happy and feel good about yourself despite those things.

Think about what you would like to accomplish, then make a plan for how to do it. Stick with your plan and keep track of your progress. If you realize that you're unhappy with something about yourself that you can change, then start today. If it's something you can't change (like your height), then start to work toward loving yourself the way you are.

Your daily efforts should be focused on turning at least one strike-out into a base hit, that is, turning a negative into a positive. Do that and watch the magic happen. Watch your home-runs start to add up!

I'm cheering from the dug out for you!

By: James DeSantis

Jim DeSantis is a retired TV News Anchor and News Director who created "Self Esteem Magic", a guaranteed step-by-step approach to start raising your Self Esteem in one weekend. Change your life starting this weekend - here - "Self Esteem Magic".

Realizing The Connection Between Body Image And Self Esteem

Your positive self-esteem is your foundation for success and without it you can feel down, depressed, inferior and suffer a lack confidence in many situations. There are many factors, affirmations and lessons to help you on the way to improving self esteem. One major connection that will be discussed here is that of the connection between how an individual sees their body image and how it affects their self esteem. Building Self Esteem - A Healthy Body Leads to a Healthy Mind Floppy loose skin, fat deposits building up around your neck and under your chin, love handles, fat rolls under your bra line, thighs, hips, back becoming roly-poly, a protruding fat tummy! Your body image and self esteem definitely have a link as to how you see your self and no matter what compliments other people give, if you are unhappy about your image then you may not be willing to accept it..a sure sign of low self esteem. People come in all shapes and sizes and it's easy to say that you should be happy with what you are born with but there is no rule to say that you should adjust your body image to fit in with the norm of societyall you need to do to improve your body image and self esteem is make adjustments to the way you think about yourself and make sure you feel healthy and if that means taking exercise then all the better for you. The main point is that you feel good about yourself without the drastic measures of surgery. Despite having said all that, the stresses and strains of the modern world place people under increasing pressure such as earning more money, looking younger, looking thinner, being a better parent and having a successful career and so on it goes means that building self esteem is no easy task. Improving how you look can definitely have a positive effect on your self esteem which will ultimately help you in your career or what ever path you choose to take. Some people handle body image very differently than others and often you will find those suffering from physical deformities may have a far higher self esteem than others who dont. How you choose to improve your body image is your choice. One important aspect is that you are motivated as once you start to feel the benefits then you will wonder why you never started sooner. Just the initial realisation that there is a connection between body image and self esteem is one important stepping stone to feeling better about yourself.

About the Author:
For more help and some methods to improve body image and self esteem and generally improving self esteem then visit www.lowselfesteemadvice.com.