50 Ways To Boost Your Self Esteem

I tracked the most popular post on my blog using google analytics and discovered it was 6 Ways To Break Out Of Prison. Coincidentally my study in the past few days has been the reports of Branden and Baumeister on self-esteem. I have decided to take a step further by blogging on 50 Ways To Boost Your Self Esteem.

What Is Self Esteem?

Self Esteem refers to the overall beliefs, opinions you have about yourself; the value you place on yourself as an individual, your ability to cope and derive pleasures (happiness) from the basic challenges of life.

In no particular order here are 50 Ways To Boost Your Self Esteem.

Accept Who You Are: You are a human with feelings, emotions and is expected to make mistakes at times. Always feel good about who you are (positively), where you are now and display confidence about what to look forward to in the future

Be Creative: There are several ways we could show our creativity by putting the skills, talents or abilities we have, into practice. These activities range from being a good administrator, wedding planner, organiser, good cook etc.

Identify what you are good at: This involves finding out what you are good at, noting things you do with so much ease and being very comfortable in your abilities. This helps to boost your level of self confidence.

Recognise The Need For Improvement: Learn to accept change. The world is constantly evolving, people/things are constantly changing, so you should always be open any form of positive improvement in order to boost your self esteem.

Promote good character: Learn to promote or be associated with good character. It is important you identify your likeable qualities and utilize them in order to boost your self esteem.

Keep Learning: Get as much information as you can. Expose yourself to different medias, read the paper, watch television, listen to the news and current affairs, read books, establish network with different people and have a decent social life. Ask questions, make discoveries, be challenged, and explore areas of interest. Whatever you do, make sure you GET INFORMED.

Accept you are weak in certain areas: Understand you can’t be experts at everything and you have flaws as humans. Your weaknesses aren’t meant to reduce who you are, rather they are meant to be worked on in order to boost your self esteem.

Celebrate Your Progress: Be happy when you make progress/changes in any sphere of your life using it as a stimulus to propel further quests for personal growth and development.

Rest: The body requires rest after stressful bouts of hard work. Once rejuvenated, you are able to think clearly and be composed. This is important in building a healthy level of self esteem.

Don’t be too hard on yourself: Go on, see some good in you. Don’t be hard on yourself. This is a negative trait which over time, develops into low self esteem. Stop flogging yourself over mistakes over the past.

Interact with positive and supportive people: Interacting with positive and supportive people tends to reduce of several bouts of low self esteem by impacting your life, making you feel loved, wanted, happy, constructively challenging you to positive growth….

Acknowledge compliments and constructive criticisms: Be gracious when receiving compliments or criticisms because they make you better person. It creates a sense of value and allows you contribute positively to the life of others.

Find out your purpose: Lay down in specific terms what you want to achieve in your life. Never aspire to have unrealistic expectations because its end result is low self esteem, depression, disenchantment.

Be Proactive: Be moderately proactive and plan carefully for what you want to achieve.

Note the areas for self development: Knowing the areas for development and making changes one at a time. Monitoring your progress is another useful way to boost your self esteem.

Exercise Patience: Being patient prepares you for the appointed time, it allows you handle various situations with confidence and assurance knowing a solution definitely exists in any circumstance.

Work Hard: Working hard on your job, building relationships, rectifying mistakes. only shows that you got an interest in positive development

Be Determined: Showing determination to succeed in every phase of your life propels your self esteem.

Know What You Want: Being very clear about your goals and aspirations is very important. You need to be proactive, decisive and realistic about what you want

Dress smartly: Dress the way you want to be addressed. Recruiters always make use of that statement, but it’s important to look sharp, dress smartly and decently. It has a way of giving you the necessary confidence to boost your self esteem.

Exercise: It is important you stay in good shape by exercising as often as you can. Apart from the healthy benefits, a lot of people feel unattractive, insecure and less confident when they are out of shape.

Be Thankful: Be thankful for things you have, people who love you and have spent time impacting your life.

Pay attention to what you eat: Remember this, YOU ARE WHAT YOU EAT!!!.

Be confident: Be confident in your skills, talents and abilities knowing you are equipped to face any sort of challenges and move in a positive direction. Being strong requires determination, decisiveness and the will power to keep your focus which projects your level of self esteem.

Value Experience: Every positive or negative event is a learning process in your life. The sole purpose of every experience gained, is to make you a better person who can confidently face whatever life has to offer. In order to boost your self esteem you must value all kinds of experiences and events you go through.

Be secured: Be secured in who, what and whom you are. Learn to deal with all your insecurities.

Set Goals: Break down your big goals into smaller goals which can be achieved easily. Starting with easier goals could give you the momentum needed to tackle harder goals and achieve them.

Share your fears: Through building positive relationships, learn to share your fears with friends and family. It could boost your self esteem through learning from the experiences of others.

Take Action: Learn to take action in any situation you find yourself. Sitting down folding your arms wouldn’t bring any results. Take positive steps to bring about the desired outcome.

Be Optimistic: Be optimistic that all life’s events would create an experience which becomes very useful in the learning process of life. Adopt a positive attitude to life.

Keep Your Ego In Check: Some times your ego comes in conflict with who you really are. It is very difficult keeping it in check, but the end result is developing good and long lasting relationships.

Care for people: Caring for people and being nice to them makes them happy. Their happiness is also a source of joy to you which aids in boosting your self esteem.

Make eye contact: Looking away from people while talking to them signifies a lack of self confidence. Constant practice of looking at people while talking to them will improve your level of communication and boost your self esteem.

Good Posture: Walking uprightly, not slouching creates an air of confidence around you.

Stand up for what you believe in: Learn to defend the cause for what you believe in, not swaying around on different ideologies.

Avoid the victim’s mentality: Avoid living in self pity and self denial. It’s important you learn to be and act responsibly. Stop the blame game.

Believe in your dreams: Believe that you can achieve your realistic dreams.

Stop comparing yourself to others: It’s very important you carve out your identity, style and avoid comparing your life to those around you.

Positive affirmations: While I have a few reservations on positive affirmations because of the way the concept is being peddled, it’s important to focus on the positive outcomes of any event/your life.

Be A Positive Influence: Being a positive influence to your children, friends, colleagues can boost your self esteem as well as theirs.

Take Risks: Taking risks when appropriate is another source of boosting your self esteem.

Engage in serving: The act of serving the community, volunteering, mentoring people, contributing to the well being of people is another tip to boosting your esteem. It gives you a sense of fulfillment knowing you are involved in the lives of people.

Be Financially Literate: Planning/Budgeting your finances knowing what, when and how to spend is another important factor to consider.

Build Your Self Image: This involves you being secured in who you are, projecting yourself as a person of high regards and self respect.

Handle Failure Properly: Do not focus on your failures. If the thoughts of failing linger on your mind, your actions, strategies, plans, geared towards being successful would be hampered because your level of confidence, motivation is reduced. Remember your normal reaction is to feel miserable BUT this shouldn’t stop you from taking future risks.

Seek Profession Help: Where/When necessary, the services of a counsellor, psychotherapist, may be employed.

Get Motivated: Be motivated to do things and over come obstacles.

Benefit from the media: Watch or listen to motivational speakers, sermons, music that would uplift your spirits. Read motivational books, articles, blogs e.t.c.

Stand up for yourself: Learn to say no, when necessary. Stand up for what is right and what you believe in. Be assertive and not afraid of any decisions you’ve made.

Be consistent: Be firm and consistent in all your decisions and way of life. Get rid of all self doubts, discouragement and the habit of procrastinating important things that will shape your life’s purpose.

I look forward to your comments and suggestions.

Ayo Olaniyan is a certified Unitive Life Coach, an Accredited Professional Counsellor with the Counselling Society and the editor of The Life Skills Magazine. For further information, please complete this form.

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