Archive for July, 2009

 

The Advantages Of Self-Confidence

Monday, July 20th, 2009
Ken Snow


Self-confident people are able to meet work deadlines

Self-confidence has the ability to make employees perform more effectively at their jobs. Confident employees are able to take on multifaceted tasks with a greater level of commitment and concentration. Self-confidence breeds enthusiasm and lets a person inspire their co-workers. Individuals like these are valuable to an employer because they can get the job done. Self-confident people have the ability to succeed at whatever they put their minds to.

Self-confident people have a positive outlook

A self-confident person is often organized and able to stick to a schedule. Being organized helps a person stay on top of things in every arena of their life. Being able to finish a job on time and well is very encouraging. You can often tell a self-confident person by his smile and cheerful demeanor.

Self-confident people are often healthier

Self-confident people are better equipped to deal with stressful situations with a level head. They are confident that they can make it through any situation and solve any problem. This aids in avoiding such health problems as high blood pressure, hypertension, and even anger. Self-confident people are likely to live a healthier life.

Self-confident people can spend more quality time at home

A good day spent at work often dictates how a person will be at home after work. A sense of accomplishment on the job helps a person be more agreeable with family, and more upbeat. He or she will want to spend more time with family, which is beneficial for everyone.

Self-confident people are better friends and partners

It is easier to invest time in a relationship when you are up on yourself and organized in your life. Self-confident people are often better able to draw the line between work and family, allowing for more balance and harmonious relationships with family and friends. Self-confident people seem to be able to bind relationships through time and care.

Self-confident people have a higher income

Self-confidence helps employees work well independently or as part of a team. They can take the lead, or follow someone else’s instructions without problems or conflict. They are not afraid to acknowledge that they deserve a promotion or raise, and ask for it.

People look up to self-confident people

Self-confident people are more likely to achieve personal and professional successes than someone who looks down on him or herself. Self-confident people have energy and magnetism that draws people in. They believe in themselves and have the courage to solve problems and deal with anything that is thrown their way. People like to be around a self-confident person.



 

Low Self-Esteem - Understanding And Overcoming Low Self Esteem

Sunday, July 19th, 2009
Abhishek Agarwal


Self-esteem is the determining factor for your success in any endeavor in life. What you end up doing in life and how you perform all depend on your self-esteem. Self-esteem refers to what you think of yourself. If you have high self-esteem, that means you are sure of your abilities to complete any task successfully. A high self-esteem ensures your success to a great extent. On the other hand, there are some people who do not trust themselves. Such people are symptomatic of low self- esteem.

The signs of low self-esteem are difficult to notice in yourself. However, other people around you can quickly notice these signs. So, to be able to check yourself before you fall prey to self-esteem, let us give you some of the conditions that lead to low self-esteem.

You reach that stage where you think nothing of yourself. You stay quiet for the fear of being termed inadequate. You yourself feel that you are worth nothing and will not be able to complete any work given to you. Although there are times when you feel your life is capable of doing anything it attempts, yet you lose confidence in your abilities very quickly.

Low self-esteem deters you achieving anything in your life as it always holds you back. If you have low self-esteem, something you would otherwise do very easily would also become an arduous task. Thus, you will not be able to accomplish anything phenomenal. It is very important to root out this low self- esteem from your life so that you can really progress in life.

Low self-esteem is not something a person is born with. It is in fact the repercussion of the hardships one has faced in life. There are times when certain events take place in your life and they result in your losing confidence in yourself. Usually these events are such that they invoke some trauma and stay with you for life. So everytime you remember them, you lose your self-esteem a little and eventually end up with low self-esteem.

If at a time in your life you have been humiliated in front of many people or even an important decision gone wrong, which has caused you to forfeit something important or dear to you, you are likely to bear the effects of it all your life in the form of low self-esteem. When one is born, they neither have high self-esteem, nor a low one. It is the experiences one undergoes in life that determine this fact.

One big mistake people make is when they equate loss of self-esteem to something that is irreparable. However, it is not impossible to regain your self-esteem. You can transform the root cause of this low self-esteem into an impetus for your growth by changing that negative experience into a nice one.

You must change these bad memories into productive ones so that whenever you remember them or experience something similar, you are not left harassed by your negative feelings and the feeling of low self-confidence.

It is essential for your well-being, to protect your self-confidence. Even your children must be taught the ability to save their self-esteem. The confidence to face each and every day head-on must be inculcated in them. Otherwise, their low self-esteem will undermine them as a person and will forever hamper their growth.

You will never be able to display your fullest potential if you have low self-esteem. It is possible to overcome this feeling of low self-esteem and you should make an attempt towards it as quickly as possible. Otherwise, you will only be left wondering all your life, what all you could have done.



 

10 Powerful Tips to Improve Self Confidence

Friday, July 17th, 2009
Jon Mercer


If you find yourself feeling like you’re “in a rut” and not appreciating yourself as much as you should, there are simple changes you can make to improve self-confidence and take charge of your life again. Confidence affects every area of life, from relationships to the workplace. And improving your self-confidence will always have a beneficial effect on both your relationships with others, and your ability to handle the little ups and downs that life can throw at us from time to time.

As a personal development coach, I have worked with many individuals to increase self-esteem and self-acceptance. The following 10 tips have proven time and again to improve self-confidence for a wide variety of people.

1. Clothes Make the Man and Woman. Yes, it’s an old cliche’, but that doesn’t make it any less true. When we dress confidently, we feel confident. Try this experiment: for one week, dress like the person you want to be, NOT the person you think you are. This one is simple change can dramatically improve self-confidence.

2. Stop Trying so Hard. Improving confidence should not be about struggling. Give up trying to be a perfectionist, and give yourself permission to be a human being who will naturally make mistakes sometimes. A sure-fire way to feel inferior is to set the bar too high in every area of your life. Cut yourself some slack — you deserve it.

3. Focus Your Attention Outward. Lack of confidence often causes people to focus an inordinate amount of attention inward, on the “self.” Make it a point to focus more attention on others than you do on yourself. Remember, confident people focus outward — insecure people focus inward.

4. Avoid Energy Vampires. All of us know someone who seems to “suck the energy” out of a room just by entering. Give yourself permission to minimize contact with these people. Don’t hate them or judge them in any way. Just recognize that they do not improve the quality of your life, and minimize your connection with them.

5. Take a Chance. Try something new and different that you may have been apprehensive about in the past. Enroll in an adult education class, or join a book club, gym, bowling league or other social pastime. Shake up your life a little bit. The change will do you good, and your self-confidence will improve.

6. Be a Giver. There is an old proverb that says “you only get what you give.” With that in mind, start giving what you want to receive in life. Make other people feel as confident and worthwhile as you can. By helping to build up confident feelings in others, you are sure to get back the same thing. Call it karma or what ever you like — it always works.

7. Practice Forgiveness. Many people are very hard on themselves because, deep down, they have not forgiven themselves for something in their past. If you’re clinging to some failure or transgression from the past, recognize that you are doing it and then forgive yourself completely for whatever it was. Likewise, if there is someone else in your life you need to forgive, make it a point to do so. NOT for their sake — but for yours. When we forgive, we purify our heart and start anew.

8. Affirmations: Ask Yourself the Right Questions. Some people repeat affirmations such as “I am self confident,” which is fine, but you can improve your affirmation results by using leading questions such as, “why am I so confident?” The subconscious mind operates in a very simple manner. When you ask it a question like this, it will immediately go to work looking for the answer, and it will report back to you all of the ways you already are confident.

9. “Model” Other Confident People. One way to improve self-confidence is to model the behavior of people whom you consider to be supremely confident. If you can befriend a very confident person, that’s great. But if not, just find an actor or other celebrity who is confidence personified, and study their behavior. Do this several times a week, and some of their confident mannerisms are bound to rub off on you.

10. Practice Gratitude. A grateful mind is a peaceful mind, and a peaceful mind radiates confidence. Practice making a daily gratitude list, and particularly focus on different aspects of yourself that you appreciate. Maybe you are a great swimmer, or good at math, or really strong, or a good dancer, or have an unusual sense of humor, or are good at design, or a great singer, or a really good friend, or any number of other positive attributes. Look for what is great about you, and then be grateful you have those qualities. Appreciating your good qualities will improve self-confidence, and help you develop the kind of positive self-image that is crucial to success in life.



 

So What Exactly Is Self Esteem?

Wednesday, July 15th, 2009
Brian Higdon


So what is self esteem? Self esteem is usually described as how a person values him or herself or how he or she regards him or herself. It is one’s belief in himself as well as one’s self respect and self image. It is important in a way that it may dictate our behavior and our interaction with other people. Self esteem or the lack of it can affect individuals in such a s way they have no confidence or belief on themselves.

People need to know what is self esteem, in order to make an assessment of themselves and evaluate whether they have low or high levels of it. Knowing what is self esteem can help a person make the decision to build self esteem or enhance it.

What Is Self Esteem’s Role In Our Daily Lives?

Self esteem is the balloon that carries us afloat during the many challenges in our daily lives. This self confidence and belief in one’s self can actually dictate how we deal with obstacles and make decisions. What is self esteem other than our belief in ourselves that we can do a lot of things and navigate the maze that is life.

Having ample level of self esteem will help us be decisive and be confident enough to deal with other people and take risks with new things. It can propel us to be adventurous enough but a high level of self esteem may sometimes come off as arrogance or over confidence for many people.

Self esteem affects how we behave towards ourselves and other people. It can also affect how successful you can be in life. What is self esteem’s role in our lives? It dictates how confident we are in facing life in general and the challenges it brings us.

Factors Of Self Esteem

Some factors that help cultivate self esteem are the support and assurance of family. Having supportive parents and siblings can build self esteem in children as well as adolescents. Adults with low self esteem can also benefit from the support of family members by providing a shoulder to cry on or an ear to listen to problems and other expressions of emotions.

Children and adolescents may have a hard time knowing what is self esteem but they can feel it. Adults who have an idea of what is self esteem may also have a hard time acknowledging that they have low levels of it. People with low self esteem need to be guided and encouraged to build their self esteem.



 

The Importance Of Developing Self Confidence

Tuesday, July 14th, 2009
Robert Kokoska


Ideally, self confidence is a personality trait that you should develop early and maintain throughout your life. For many of us, though, that just isn’t the case - as either the process of developing self confidence is stymied early on by several factors, or we lose confidence because of certain life events.

Nowadays, it is relatively rare to meet someone who is entirely satisfied with his or her selves level of confidence. Interestingly enough though, this can also be true of people who might seem (to the casual observer) to exude great confidence and self esteem - in fact, they can even appear brash or over-confident. Sometimes, this is just a front for the lack of confidence that individual is hiding in an attempt to impress other people.

Developing self confidence is an important skill for personal growth, because a lack of confidence can really hold you back in all areas of your life. First of all, it can manifest itself in a great variety of ways. Many people with poor self confidence and low self esteem tend to stay in unsatisfying careers and relationships because they don’t believe in themselves enough to think that they can do better or have the willpower to raise their standards.

Of course, this can often lead to a self perpetuating problem - if you aren’t happy with what you’re doing and where you are heading in life, you are very unlikely to be working to your full capacity or with enthusiasm. Then on top of that, less than stellar results from your work efforts will reinforce the idea that you are a just a mediocre or poor worker. Your self confidence will naturally suffer as a result. All of us deserve to know what it’s like to work at something we truly love in life and all of us deserve to feel like we can achieve anything we set our minds to.

Some of the more frequent activities that result in poor self confidence are addiction or other self destructive behaviors, such as eating disorders. Most eating disorders, such as anorexia or bulimia, result from a feeling that you are somehow inadequate and that you need to be perfect in order to accept yourself or be accepted. As a result, some young women (who are particularly susceptible to this type of problem) have literally starved themselves to death. Developing self confidence early on is probably the best defense against developing addictions, eating disorders and other problems with self image later on.

Finally, if you have poor self confidence, you are unlikely to be enjoying fulfilling relationships with friends, partners or family. One thing that may happen is that you will end up projecting your negative self-worth onto someone else, often a child. On the other hand, you might also be willing to put up with abusive behavior if your self confidence is poor. All in all, developing self confidence is a way to avoid a whole range of debilitating problems.