What is self-esteem? It is basically a person’s opinion of his or her own abilities. Self-esteem also encompasses other personal attitudes, including achievements, confidence, guilt, power, competence, and shame, which are all interrelated. As with any concept in life, self-esteem can be a highly accurate indicator of someone’s true worth. When a person’s self-worth is low, they will generally be perceived as incompetent and not worthy of being taken seriously.
Self esteem is a vital component to positive self-talk, the capacity to talk positively to yourself and others. The basis of self-esteem is your attitude toward yourself, and that is a very important area to work on as it relates to building your self-confidence. Positive self-talk consists of maintaining a positive attitude toward your own self, others, and the world at large. Positive self-talk fosters feelings of self-confidence and self-esteem.
Self-esteem has many facets, including the self-confidence that you feel when you are successful at a specific task or activity. When you are successful at the task or activity, your self-esteem will rise because you have succeeded in dealing with the task. Success breeds success, and your sense of self-worth will increase accordingly. Your self-confidence will help to build your self-efficacy.
In addition to this, your self-image will depend in large part on your understanding of who you are and your perception of who you are as an individual. You have an image of who you are, and your self-image is largely shaped by the way others see you. Your self-image is largely an unknown area. The extent to which your inner world reflects upon your outer world is called your ‘blind area.’
The extent to which your internal world supports your external world is called your ‘categorization’ of yourself. You may have a strong internal sense of who you are, but your external world may not fully support it. That’s the reason you need positive self-talk and confidence building techniques to support your strong internal self-image. Self-affirmation and self-talk can be powerful tools for increasing your self-confidence. They also facilitate building your self-image and improving your self-affirmations and self-talk.
Another important component of self-esteem relates to your ability to perform a specific task or activity. This is related to your ability to do that task or activity and your level of competence. Self-confidence and self-efficacy are related to your level of competence as a specific task or activity is performed. So, if you cannot do a particular task or activity you are attempting to do, then your self-esteem or self-efficacy will be low.
When you are trying to increase your self-confidence, self-knowledge, self-image, and self-efficacy, it is imperative that you have an understanding of how other people see and judge you. What is the unknown area? Your personal black box. Your personal black box is the part of you that you do not recognize or know how to access to improve your performance. The extent to which others see and evaluate you in this area determines your level of self-confidence.
It is impossible for you to improve your skills at whatever it is that you wish to learn unless you begin to look at what other people see or evaluate about you. This includes looking at yourself in the mirror. To improve your self-image and self-esteem, it is imperative that you examine your image with another person in order to get feedback on how you look. To increase your self-confidence, self-knowledge, and self-efficacy, it is essential that you do the same with others. There is a great deal that can be learned from looking at oneself in the eye from a different perspective.