Self-Esteem: Building A Positive Attitude

Hello friends, Its been a very long time since I blogged anything. The reason is all these days I was in a confusion about my future career options. As many of u know, currently I am staying at home looking after my 3n half yr old daughter. I left thinking about my career after the baby. These 3years I have enjoyed her each and every growing moment. 

But now the time has come to seriously think about my future as she is now started going to school full time. My options are very clear, either I should prefer staying at home for permanently as a home maker or I should start a career now. With my husband’s support I preferred starting my career as I personally feel and experienced the mind got lazy if u don’t keep engaged in something challenging. Even though mentally I am not ready yet, I dared to start with studies and got registered into M.Tech program this year with my husband’s support/pushing. As I kept my mind idle for years together, I lost the habit of taking up challenges, lost all my confidence and started thinking negative n feeling like a loser. To boost my confidence level, I thought I should read some inspirational books. Then I remembered of Mr Shiv Khera’s “You can win” book which my brother has suggested me few years before.

Instead of starting with the first chapter and leave it after a day or two without completing the book, first I chose to read the topics which I feel I need to improve. After reading few topics, I really felt its a fantastic book with inspirational quotes and inspiring real life stories that helps you clearing the situation and provide us a new way of thinking. This book not only guides us to develop a positive attitude but also teaches us to become a good human being.  One should read this book despite of one’s busy routines. Definitely you will learn something new which needs to be changed in making you a great leader and a good human being. Here I would like to give u a glimpse about the topic Self-esteem which is very essential in building positive attitude. 

Self-esteem is the way we feel about ourselves. When we feel good, the world looks nice, productivity goes up and relationships are a lot better. There is a direct relation between people’s feelings and their productivity. Unless u perceive yourself worthwhile, u cannot have high self-esteem, which gives you internal drive and leads to happy, gratifying and purposeful life. Again high self-esteem does not mean having a big ego.

We are the ones who start framing our self-esteem, positive or negative from the day we are born. We develop feelings about ourselves that are reinforced by others. The negative self-talk such as ‘I have poor memory power/ I cannot handle it’ put us down. Very soon our minds start believing these statements and our behaviour will change accordingly.

Fair comparisons are okay but unfair comparisons make a person feel inferior. People with high self-esteem don’t compete with others, instead they improve their own performance. They compete against themselves. They compare their performance against their capabilities. Success breeds success and failure breeds failure. With every success, self-confidence goes up and it is easier to succeed the next time. So our responsibility is to help us break the chain of failure and put ourselves into the chain of success.

Action steps to be followed in building a Positive Self-Esteem

1. Read life stories of people who have turned their negatives into positives. Make reading good books and/or listening to inspirational tapes part of your daily routine
2. Regularly and systematically spend a portion of ur time or money to charitable activity without any expectation in cash or king. It definitely raises one’s self-esteem
3. Stay away from negative influences
4. Practice giving and receiving sincere compliments graciously. When others give u a comment, accept it graciously and gracefully say ‘Thank you’. That is a sign of humility
5. Start accepting responsibility for ur behaviours and actions and be insulated from excuses
6. Associate with people of high moral character, which helps build self-esteem
7. Develop the habit of giving positive self-talk such as ‘I can do it’, ‘I can handle it’, ‘I have a good memory power’ etc., which alters ur belief system by influencing ur subconscious mind because ur behaviour reflects ur belief system
8. Practice patience and have faith and keep doing right things, even though the results may not b visible immediately
9. Be creative and find ways to turn your weaknesses into strengths