Self-esteem is really all about believing in your capacity as a human being. You can never really reach your full potential unless you believe in yourself. A person who has high regards for the self are those who view life in a positive way. They are never ones who are prone to anger, instead they welcome each and every event as an opportunity to learn and develop as an individual.
It is very crucial that one learns to develop his or her self-esteem if he or she is to be truly happy. Indeed, contentment and happines go hand in hand and this has its basis on a good level of self-esteem. However, a high self-esteem should never be confused with egotism.
There is a difference. Having a high self-esteem means not only caring for the self which is mostly what egotism is all about, it is caring for others as well. Self-esteem is all about knowing and believing in one’s self enough to trust and start believing in others too.
What follows is a nice poem that summarizes what self-esteem is all about.
RISE ABOVE THE CROWD
(Anonymous Author)
The world is full of people,
content to be what they are
Who never know the joy of success;
they lack the will to go that far.
Yet in this world there is a need,
for some to lead the rest
To rise above the average life,
by giving of their best.
Are you the one who dares,
to try when challenged by the task
To rise to heights you’ve never dreamed,
Or is that too much to ask?
This can be your year,
for great purpose to achieve
If you accept the challenge,
and in yourself believe.
Indeed, one can only go as far as where one’s belief in one’s self would carry them.
Although it is true that development of self-esteem starts from the ages one to five years old, any one from any age group can develop this. Self-esteem is not a natural talent. It is acquired and developed.
While we each retain full control of our own self-esteem development, the people that surround do help develop our self-confidence. It just takes a difference in the way one perceives things to improve self-esteem.
There are so many ways to go about this. There are many reading materials in fact, that tackle self-esteem. The most popular is Jack Canfield’s Chicken Soup for the Soul. Many of Oprah’s episodes also tackle how to develop self-esteem, for wasn’t it her show that introduced self-esteem gurus such as Dr. Grey and Dr. Phil? Both are now renowned authors of popular self-help books.
Seminars are also being conducted. These usually lasts anywhere from one to three days. It may be a bit costly, but live interaction is usually the more effective road to development.
There are also self- esteem tests available on the net. Some sites offer free assessment, however, these would merely give you snap shots and not a thorough evaluations. However, given the idea of where you might be needing improvement could propel you to strive more to improve on these aspects.
These self-esteem test sites include:
- Queendom.com
- Testcafe.com
- Coaching to happiness.com
- Psychtests
- Wellnessnet
- Selfesteem4women
- Kaaj.com
- Okcupid.com
- More-selfesteem.com
- www.expertrating.com/quizzes/Self-Esteem
- www.anxietycentre.com/anxiety-tests/self-esteem