What is Self Esteem and how does it affect you as a person?

After reading the mail sent in by one of my readers, i got inspired to write on the subject of self esteem. (The mail and my response to it is in the previous post)

Self Esteem means having confidence in ones own worth or self.  Self esteem is made up of thoughts, feelings and opinions we have about ourselves. what this means is that self esteem is not static. it can change based on a number of factors.  Those factors are the reasons why people either have low self esteem or high self esteem. Research shows that when you constantly think of yourself in a negative way, you are bound to have low self esteem and when you think highly of yourself without going extreme, you are bound to have a high self esteem.

Having low self esteem can be a huge danger to self more than we realize. Low self esteem makes you feel inadequate, unworthy and incompetent which can lead to depression, failure and untimely death.

Often times people with low self esteem evaluate themselves in a negative way when some circumstances they face touches on their sensitivities. They tend to personalize the incident and see themselves only from that point of view. Enduring abusive situations and relationships are the most popular signs of people experiencing low self esteem.

Overcoming low self esteem is crucial to your success and happiness and you can build your esteem by changing how you view yourself and incorporating the following in your life;

You must see yourself as a unique individual with special talents and qualities.
You must acknowledge and believe the fact that you deserve the best things of life.
You must give yourself only constructive criticism.
You must focus on the good things happening to you and around you.
You must view your mistakes as learning opportunities
You must remind yourself that everyone excels at different things.
You must try new things and give yourself credit.
You must take pride in your opinions and ideas
You must accept compliments
and most importantly you must accept what you can change and what you cannot change.

On the other hand, too much self love can also be destructive. This can result in a sense of entitlement or an inability to learn from failures.

The victory lies in your ability to love yourself just enough without going extreme and becoming self destruct.