I recently started reading “This I believe” which is a collection of eighty essays by prominent Americans from various walks of life and industries who contributed an essay about life and living. “The result is a stirring and provocative trip inside the minds and hearts of a diverse group of people whose beliefs-and the remarkable varied ways in which they choose to express them-reveal the American spirit at its best.”
This book is an easy read at 291 pages and can be read in one sitting. The essays in this book that affected me most were written by people who are constantly looking for another idea to grasp, another place to travel to in their minds, and another challenge to look forward to. They seem to be in a perpetual state of moving toward something. One was a movie producer who at age 45 tried surfing for the first time in the breakers of Oahu. Another is a physician who in the 1980s, when the fear of AIDS/HIV was thought to be a disease of homosexuals, decided that his life was one of service to all of mankind. These were all people, like you and me, who decided that they were going somewhere, they were looking forward.
What does all of this have to do with your self esteem? My answer is the question – Is your self esteem coming or going? Are you moving away from something or are you moving toward something?
You were born as a fearless, confident little person with high self esteem. You tried everything, wanted to touch everything, taste everything, and see everything. You were this little sponge that couldn’t get enough and were never satisfied with what you already knew or already had. You had remarkable self esteem. What happened to you?
Are you moving away from something or moving toward something?
This question is about what you are focusing on. If you are focusing on what you don’t want or what you are moving away from, you may get more of what you don’t want. The more you dwell on the stuff you want out of your life, you are diffusing the same energy from that experience and you are attracting more of the same.
When you are moving toward something and focus your energy on where you are going, that is what you then attract into your life. So what are you moving toward? Move toward confidence, toward high self esteem, toward high self assurance. Then you are asking, how do I do that?
Remain in the pursuit of something but realize that you are on a constant journey and that you will never truly arrive. The journey is the joy, the mistakes that you make and the lessons that you learn are vital to your self esteem. You will succeed and triumph over many small victories and some large ones. Remember that it’s the small victories where you realize the greatest personal growth and development. The large victories are just the accumulation of all of your smaller ones.
“Disrupting my comfort zone, bombarding myself with challenging people and situations, this is the best way I know to keep growing. And to paraphrase a biologist I once met, if you’re not growing, you’re dying”
…Brian Grazer
So bombard your life with challenging people and situations and learn solutions from each one of these. Your self esteem and confidence with soar. You will feel invincible. You will feel that there isn’t anything you can’t do and no situation that you can’t overcome. Remember that there are no problems in this world, only situations, challenges, and opportunities for personal growth and development.
Disrupt your comfort zone and boost your self esteem with some of these suggestions of moving toward something:
- Try something that you have never done before.
- Go out of your way to meet interesting role models that may have a similar interest as you.
- Read books, watch videos, and talk with other people about your personal development.
Send me your comments on your challenges and your success. I promise to reply.
Sincerely,
Leo