CELEBRATE YOUR STRENGTHS


A sure recipe for low self esteem is to constantly beat yourself up for your failings. 

To raise your self-esteem, try to be more balanced by celebrating your strengths and achievements. It is easy to overlook our strengths when we are in a negative frame of mind and also to take for granted the things we find easy to do.
 
Why do you think you have so few strengths worth celebrating? 

• Because everyone has always pointed out your shortcomings - as you do yourself.
• Because you rarely get any positive feedback for a job well done .
• Because the things you do well are so familiar to you that you take them for granted .
• Because you have learned to focus only on your mistakes .

Audit your strengths

• This is not as easy as it seems because you will have discounted your strengths.
• Find a good listener to help you review everything you have done.
• Others may be more objective about what you can do than you can be.
• Discuss work and non-work projects you have been involved in over the last 5 years.
• Strive to avoid discounting the other person's attempts to name your strengths.

Review your strengths

• Make a list of your strengths and read it to yourself regularly, adding to it as you go.
• Praise yourself for what you have achieved.
• Compare yourself favourably with peers who have not done what you have done.
• Review your strengths whenever you are feeling particularly defeated.

                                     Mitch McCrimmon, Ph.D.