Self-esteem describes a person's opinions about themselves and their abilities ( Steinem, 2012) . It can be low, high, or in-between. Although everyone has doubts occasionally about themselves, low self-esteem always leaves a person feeling unmotivated and insecure. There are strategies of building self-esteem, including using positive affirmations, identifying competencies, accepting compliments, eradicating self-criticism, and affirming real personal worth.
Using positive affirmations such as “I can do this” are quite popular but have one major challenge, they can make individuals with low self-esteem feel more terrible about themselves ( Steinem, 2012) . However, positive affirmations have a positive impact on certain people, those with high self-esteem. Even when a person has low self-esteem, they should make positive affirmations believable while challenging themselves to achieve the positive affirmations. For example, changing "I will be successful" to "I will keep trying until I succeed” ( Steinem, 2012). Additionally, an individual can identify their competencies and strengths, and then focus on developing and improving them. Self-esteem is built by showing achievement and real ability in issues in people’s lives that matter. If an individual themselves in being a good cook, then they should invite friends and family to a dinner party. If an individual is a good athlete, then they should train and sign up for particular sports. Ultimately, a person should identify their personal competencies and find careers and opportunities to develop them ( Steinem, 2012) .
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The third step involves accepting compliments. One of the key challenges when improving self-esteem is that when people feel bad about themselves, they tend to be pessimistic or resistant to positive complements even if they are in a situation that requires complements ( Berne & Savary, 2014) . An individual should tolerate and accept the compliments even if it makes them feel uncomfortable. One of the best and simplest techniques of avoiding reflexive reactions of resisting compliments is developing simple responses and then use then automatically. For example, "Thank you. In time, the resistance to compliments will fade away, and it will be a sign that a person's self-esteem is improving.
The fourth step involves eradicating self-criticism and incorporating self-compassion. In most cases when a person’s self-esteem is low, they tend to worsen it by becoming self-critical. Since the objective is building self-esteem, a person should replace self-criticism with self-compassion. Especially when there is an inner monologue involving self-criticism, an individual should ask themselves what they would say to a relative or close friend if they were in a similar situation. In most cases, people tend to be more compassionate and supportive with family and friends in comparison to themselves ( Marcia, 2017) . Therefore, a person should direct the positive comments to themselves. Such actions will prevent a person from further damaging their self-esteem.
The fifth step involves affirming a person's real worth. There are particular techniques that assist an individual in realizing their real worth especially when their self-esteem takes a real blow ( Brown, 2014) . The technique involves listing particular qualities that are significant in a particular context. For instance, if an individual got rejected by their date, the person should list traits and qualities that would make them a good relationship prospect, such as emotionally available or loyal. Also, if the person did not get a promotion or job, the person should list traits or qualities that would have made them a great employee, such as being responsible or work ethic. The person can also go ahead and write an essay about the significance of the mentioned qualities and attributes.
All in all, building self-esteem is not an easy task and requires a lot of commitment and work. The five strategies involve creating and maintaining sustainable and healthy emotional habits ( Marcia, 2017) . If a person implements the strategies correctly, there are essential psychological and emotional returns, especially building high self-esteem.
References
Berne, P. H., & Savary, L. M. (2014). Building self-esteem in children . Ratna Sagar.
Brown, J. D. (2014). Self-esteem and self-evaluation: Feeling is believing. In Psychological Perspectives on the Self, Volume 4 (pp. 39-70). Psychology Press.
Marcia, J. E. (2017). Ego-Identity Status: Relationship to Change in Self-Esteem. Social Encounters: Contributions to Social Interaction , 340.
Steinem, G. (2012). Revolution from within: A book of self-esteem . Open Road Media.
