How to Overcome Low Self-Esteem

Your Life Reflects Your Choices, and Your Choices Often Reflect Your Beliefs

And the biggest belief issue most of us struggle with, based on my experience, is poor self-belief. I believe with every ounce of my being, that this single thing wrecks more lives than anything else.

It’s like a cancer of the soul. Self-belief, self-worth, self-confidence, and self-esteem are all the essentially the same thing as I see it. This area of self-perspective, affects how you see yourself, how you see the world around you, and obviously massively impacts how you will engage in life.

I have had to deal with this issue my entire life, and I don’t expect that to stop, given that I have experienced it, lived with it, and walked through it for over 60 years now (well…I probably didn’t experience it when I was a really little kid). I have proven that no measure of self-medicating, material possessions, performance-accomplishments, or accolades will make it disappear.

The key is to recognize low esteem for what it is…a feeling…and then move past it like it’s a tired old tee-shirt you can’t throw away, but don’t like wearing. You overcome it day by day, and render it powerless when you know what to do and frame it properly.

It’s NOT YOU, It’s Them

Since you likely struggle with this to some degree, the first thing I want to make clear for you is that you are NOT alone, and this DID NOT come from you.

Research indicates that 85% of the population (USA, and probably similar in most developed nations) has low self-esteem. So I ask you…how does this happen? Because we are conditioned this way. Most of our systems growing up are about conforming to something…which means we are automatically not embraced for our uniqueness (rather chastised for it), and made quite aware of how we aren’t so good at fitting the mold of society, and constantly reminded of where we are not good enough. Just typing this pisses me off so much I can’t describe it. Everyday you are bombarded with messaging that says you aren’t smart enough, pretty enough, cool enough…

Babies are not born with low self-esteem. Sure, they may be born with a tendency towards some type of chemical imbalance that can affect feelings and mood, and other things, but we are not born with an instinct to feel bad about ourselves. Okay…enough on this…it’s really working me up! Let’s jump to what you can do to tamp down how it affects your life.

Self-Care is Number One

This is the single most important thing you can do. And of course, aside from brushing our teeth, and bathing, we aren’t taught much about this. We aren’t “schooled” in how to take care of ourselves physically the optimal way, nor are we taught how to develop ourselves optimally. I start each day with a morning routine that I’ve followed for over 30 years. It centers me for the day regardless of how I wake up feeling, and it has also led to optimal health, and deep development personally and professionally. But here’s maybe the most valuable part of the self-care equation….it shows you that YOU are worth working on. You are proving yourself valuable enough to take the time for you.

I can promise you that if you will schedule time to invest in yourself for the next 30 days, regardless of all the things screaming for your attention, you will feel at least a little better about yourself and your life. That alone can help you lock in this habit, but in general, you will have gotten used to doing it…and sustaining this going forward will gradually (and over time appear dramatic) shape how you deal with low esteem feelings and minimize how often it limits you.

You will likely begin to see positive changes in your relationships, in your social life, and definitely in your professional life.

There are many other strategies that add to this an I employ ALL of them. Things like serving, minimizing your exposure to negativity, developing your strengths (all of these I talk about in the video), creating success lists, gratitude lists, using the proper self-talk, and I can go on. I detail many of these in the 3 Circles Living book.

Start with self-care. If you don’t show yourself that you are worth it, no one else and nothing else will be able to help you. You are the leader of your life. Step into it.

If this was helpful at all, please share it. There are people all around you who could use some encouragement.