Some Call It Self-Esteem

Some call it self-esteem, some call it confidence, some believe it comes from self-awareness or self-control. Self-esteem flows from your self-image, your overall opinion of yourself – how you feel about your abilities and limitations. When your self-esteem is healthy, people feel good when they are around you and you feel more confident around others.

Self-esteem plays a significant role in your motivation and success. When your survival needs of health, safety and financial stability are taken care of and family and friendships are strong, you develop a strong sense of worth - you are confident, self-reliant and very resourceful.

Low self-esteem may hold you back from succeeding at work because you don't believe in yourself, to be capable of success. You may feel that you don't have enough for your survival needs or that you are not loved enough, which leads to a feeling of not being enough.

When you find your tribe, you stop comparing yourself;  you may aspire to be like others but you have your own unique thumbprint that cannot be changed to be like anyone else's. The sooner we learn to be our unique selves, build on our own experiences and share our own stories the sooner we start to build our own self-esteem and confidence.

You probably have a good sense of who you are if you exhibit the following signs:      

• you are comfortable to say no when you need to
• you have a positive outlook
• you are in touch with your overall strengths and weaknesses and accept them
• negative experiences don't impact your overall perspective
• you have the ability to express your needs
• you are confident and are capable of performing your tasks.

To increase your awareness around self-esteem, ask yourself the following questions:

1. How much do I really like myself?
2. How significant do I think my life is?
3. How worthy do I believe I am of other people’s attention?
4. How truly confident of my abilities am I?
5. Are others as important to me as me?

Most of what you need is right there within you, waiting for you to tap into it. The kind of high self-esteem that attracts others to you is pure authenticity – being more of the person you already are, without the mental tricks that get in your way.

Emotional self-awareness is the ability to recognise and master your feelings, and inner thoughts that affect your behaviour. Learning how to recognise and control these behaviours is a big first step.

Emotional self-awareness is the ability to keep these impulses and emotions in check during stressful situations, like having difficult conversations or walking through that door to your next meeting or having the ability to control the conversation in your head - yes you know the one!

Become intentional about your thoughts, feelings and what you want to achieve each day. The more you can practice intentionality each day the more confident you will become.

The more you work on yourself, the more the world around you changes.

Ondina x