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Wise Words for Today...

10 Ways to Boost Your Self-Esteem

Self-esteem is the backbone of a person's success. It is a quality which helps you realize your potential and worth, so that you always work towards harnessing your full potential. When you start doubting your own worth, you can become a victim to serious problems such as depression. A person who is depressed has no willingness or motivation to live and can, therefore, develop suicidal thoughts in his mind.

Hence, it is very important to boost your self-esteem. When you know your worth, it helps you achieve bigger things in your life than you ever imagined. If you thought you could build your self-esteem by mental tricks and visualization techniques, you are mistaken.

James T Canmore, in his book, "Hole in the Soul to Supercharged Spirit" explains that your mind can never heal your soul; instead, it is your soul that heals your mind. The 10 practical self-esteem boosting tips mentioned in this book are:

• Be nice to yourself

Never be too harsh on yourself and don't always try to find the negative aspects of things that you do. Give yourself a pat on your back for any good job that you do.

• Look after your physical body

Your soul and mind can be healthy only when your body is healthy. Therefore, never neglect your health at any cost. Eat the right foods at the right time, get enough exercise and remain fit & healthy.

• Take regular stock of your strengths and weaknesses

You should know what you are good at and what you can improve upon, if you want to realize your potential. Develop your strengths while you spend additional time and effort to work on your weaknesses and bridge the gaps there as well.

• Surround yourself with positive people

Ensure that the group of people you are hanging out with is full of positivity and happiness. Their positivity can rub on you as well.

• Be a supportive friend to others

Listening is a skill and not everyone is a master of it. You can improve your self-esteem considerably by just being there for your friend and lending him a listening ear.

• Take care of your appearance

You should spend enough time and effort on your personal grooming because how you look plays an important role in how you feel mentally & physically as well.

• Do something nice for someone else

The feeling of helping others is priceless. Do whatever you can to make others happy. It will make you feel good about yourself.

• List your accomplishments daily

Make a note of your achievements on a daily basis so that you know where you stand. It can boost your morale significantly.

• List and follow your passions in life

Write down all your passions and make some time to follow them whenever you can so that you feel like you are adding meaning and value to your life.

• Be true to yourself

None of these above tips will work if you aren't honest to yourself. Set reasonable targets and appreciate yourself when you meet them.

For more information about this book, you can buy its kindle version for a very attractive price from this link - https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07WF857D1/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=hole+in+the+soul&qid=1565612967&s=digital-text&sr=1-1

Article Source: https://EzineArticles.com/expert/Shalini_M/2609777

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How Changing Your Mindset Can Change Your Life

If you have been struggling to lose weight, improve a relationship, find a new job or just have more fun, the answer may be in your mindset. Mindset is a concept developed over a decade ago by Stanford University psychologist Carol Dweck through her research to understand how people cope with failures. Dweck defines mindset as the view we adopt of ourselves and proved that it can profoundly affect how we live our lives. She found that people generally fall into two categories, those with a fixed mindset and those with a growth mindset. A "fixed" mindset suggests that our intelligence, ability and personality are carved in stone and do not change much over our lifetime. An example of this mindset might be "I am not athletic"" or "I am a math person" which suggest that these traits can't change. The downside to a "fixed" mindset is these kinds of beliefs limit personal growth. By contrast, a "growth" mindset suggests that individuals have basic abilities but can develop and cultivate these and other abilities or intelligence and talents through effort and strategies. This view allows for potential to grow and opens us to greater possibility and success. Adopting a growth mindset can improve all areas of life from personal to professional. Changing from a fixed mindset to a growth can be accomplished through three steps.

Three Steps to Grow Your Mindset

According to Dweck, a growth mindset is based on the belief that we can change throughout our lifetime. While changing our beliefs can be challenging, the growth mindset can be developed in small steps.

1. Awareness of how we think. The first step is to become aware of our behavior. When we tune into our thoughts and start to notice our reaction to challenges, criticism and setbacks, we can notice patterns where we are stuck. Challenges, criticism and setbacks are roadblocks with a fixed mindset. For example, a fixed mindset reaction to a difficult challenge is to question whether we can succeed. If we don't think we can, why would we try only to fail. For instance, the thought "I am not going to volunteer to help my boss with that project because I am not sure I have all the skills. If I fail, I will look like a fool in front of my co-workers" is limiting the possibility for growth. In addition, constructive criticism is taken as an affront and a typical "fixed" mindset response is to become defensive and feel like a failure. "I can't believe she told me my paper needed work. I am a horrible writer." Setbacks can be a reason to give up because they reinforce our belief that we did not have the ability in the first place. "I auditioned and didn't get a part. I knew I wasn't a good singer."


2. Choice, The second step is to take this awareness and begin to see each of these is a choice. While it is comfortable to stay with our habitual responses, growth occurs when we make choices to change our limiting beliefs. A limiting belief keeps us in a safe zone but also keeps us from growth. For example, if my limiting belief is "I can never lose weight because my parents were overweight", why try at all? This choice is to default to limiting thoughts. Or in the setback example of not being selected because of lack of natural ability, the response is a choice to give up because I "failed" and my ability is fixed. The growth choice requires more effort to stretch our abilities or maybe change the strategy.


3. Challenge the belief. The final step is to challenge the belief as it comes up. To challenge these beliefs, it is important to see challenges, criticism or setbacks as opportunity for growth. For instance, in the above example of the audition "although I did not get this part, I learned about the audition process and I will continue to take voice lessons because it is important to me and I enjoy it. I might not get a part the next time I will keep trying new strategies. I can ask for feedback and see how I might improve." The shift from focusing solely on the result to enjoying the process to critical with a growth mindset. In addition, being open to feedback helps us develop much more than seeing it as a failure. Dweck suggests incorporating the phrase "I am not there yet" instead of "I failed" to stay encouraged to keep trying. As Henry Ford said "whether you think you can or think you can't - you are right!"

Liz Brown PCC is a Certified Life, Wellness, ADHD and Recovery Coach. As the owner of Be Well Life Coaching LLC she helps individuals and groups navigate life changes through coaching and workshops. Visit http://www.bewelllifecoaching.com for more information.

Article Source: https://EzineArticles.com/expert/Liz_Brown/2393502

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