What is Self-Esteem?

ByAbelFilho

shutterstock_384750664As a Confidence Coach I’m often asked what is self-esteem and how is it different from confidence?

Confidence is defined as a  feeling of trust in your abilities, qualities and judgement

Whereas self-esteem relates to your self-worth and how you value yourself in the world.

Someone with low self-esteem would have an overall negative belief about themselves. They’d tend to focus on their weaker points and blame themselves for any difficulties or mistakes.

If your self-esteem is higher, you generally believe you’re okay and recognise your strengths. When there are tough times in your life you can cope with them without feeling a victim or taking all the responsibility.

If you’re not sure where you are on the self-esteem scale then look at these types of behaviours and  decide which describe you the most, or perhaps you demonstrate both types of behaviour?

High self-esteem behaviours:

  1. Have a balanced view of your positives and negatives
  2. Take care of yourself physically and emotionally
  3. Willing to trust others
  4. Independent
  5. Optimistic
  6. Willing to take risks
  7. Compassionate to yourself
  8. Learn from your mistakes
  9. Open-minded to others
  10. Trusting yourself and your intuition
  11. Collaborative
  12. Take responsibility for your actions and not always blaming others

Low self-esteem behaviours:

  1. Focused on your perceived negatives
  2. Self-blame and criticism
  3. Pessimistic
  4. Fear of taking risks
  5. Blaming attitude
  6. Avoid taking responsibility for actions
  7. Fear of confrontation
  8. Perfectionist behaviours
  9. Oversensitive to others comments
  10. Comparing yourself to others
  11. Needing to be right
  12. Dependant on others for decisions

Your self-esteem can fluctuate with your current experiences in life and most of us are somewhere around the middle of the scale . To work on building a healthier self-esteem I suggest starting by getting a clear picture of your positives and strengths as well as your flaws.

For more information and support on building your self-esteem and confidence please contact me for a free consultation or sign up for my blogs.

Jo

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