Much Ado About Self-Esteem

Self-esteem is a highly overrated catchall that seems to be designed to be an excuse for just about every abnormal or subnormal behavior that's around today. This is simply my never-to-be-too-humble opinion.

Self-esteem can be loosely defined as an one's estimate of one's worth or value. The unfortunate side of that definition is that it can be very easily based on invalid information. Our thoughts about ourselves can be notoriously unreliable.

The emotions created by one's estimate of one's worth can range from feeling painfully incapable of any good thing to being painfully assured that one can do anything. In other words one can feel woefully inferior or one can feel annoyingly arrogant based on that personal assessment and both assessments can be wrong.

That's a harsh statement, I know, but I get so tired of reading and hearing that low self-esteem is the basis for just about any failure in mankind from not doing homework to criminal behavior. But I never hear of high self-esteem being blamed for offenses ranging from disrespecting others to bullying.

I read of countless seminars where people who have been told they have poor self-esteem pay thousands and thousands of dollars looking for answers. Or they buy books and CDs by the boat load trying to improve their self-esteem.

Educators “teach” self-esteem. Legislators authorize self-esteem. Salespeople sell self-esteem. But very few people do anything about self-esteem.

Self-esteem can't be cured by thinking about it because it is caused by thinking about things. Our low self-esteem results from all the negative thinking that has accumulated over the years. It may be from rejection. It may be from hurtful words or unkind treatment by someone we trusted. It may be from a personal failure or pain over missed opportunities.

Our self-esteem is linked to our negative thinking and the best way to deal with low self-esteem is to get rid of the negative thinking. I'm not suggesting “positive” thinking or alternative thinking. We are created with an innate capacity to be happy. We too often allow the negative thinking to completely mask us from reality and good decisions. Control the negative thinking and find peace.

That's how I learned how to get rid of my anger several years ago. I know the concept works.

Stop using low self-esteem as an excuse. Get the negative thinking out of the way and you can find peace.

Go for it!



www.findingpersonalpeace.com

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