6 Practice tips on how to improve self-esteem

1. Take an inventory of self-esteem and give yourself a benchmark.


It could be as easy as writing down 10 of your strengths and 10 of your weaknesses. This will help you begin to develop an honest and realistic view of yourself.

2. Set up realistic expectations.


It's important to set tiny, attainable goals that are within your control. For example, having an extremely high expectation or an assumption that someone else will change their behavior is almost guaranteed to make you experience a disappointment, without any intention of your own.

3. From becoming a perfectionist.


Acknowledge all your successes and your faults. Nobody is fine, and the only way to try to be is to lead to disappointment. Remembering your successes while remembering your faults is a way to maintain a positive outlook while improving and developing out of your mistakes.

4. Only express yourself.


The value of understanding yourself and being at ease with whom you are can not be overstated. This may take some trial and error, and you're always learning new things about yourself, but it's a path that needs to be pursued with intent and passion.

5. Be willing to adjust your own image.


We also change as we mature and evolve, and we must keep up with our ever-changing selves if we want to set and accomplish realistic goals.

6. Stop comparing yourself with the others.


Comparing oneself to others is a pit that is incredibly easy to fall into, especially today with social media and the ability to project a smooth, elegant image. The only person you need to compare yourself to is you (Grohol, 2011).

The Psychotips Blog also provides some useful tips on how to boost your self-esteem, including:
  
  • Say "no" to your inner critic.
  • Using better motivational practices.
  • Take a 2-minute pause from self-esteem.
  • Write down 3 aspects that you can learn about yourself in the evening.
  • Do the right thing to do.
  • Replace the notion of perfectionism.
  • Balance mistakes and losses in a more positive way.
  • Be kinder to other men.
  • Just try something new.
  • Avoid falling into the trap of contrast.
  • Spend more time with supporting people (and less time with destructive people).
  • Note the "why" of high self-esteem (Edberg, 2017).
The list of unique, practical you can do to develop and maintain a positive sense of self-esteem:

  • Use distancing pronouns. When you're having anxiety or negative self-talk, try putting it in more abstract ways (e.g. instead of saying "I feel ashamed," try saying "Courtney's feeling ashamed"). This might allow you to see the situation as.

  • Mind your successes. The easiest way to overcome imposter syndrome— to assume that, for all of your victories, you are a loser and a fraud — is to mention all of your personal achievements. You might be able to explain a few of them away as a possibility, but they can't all be lucky! 

  • Get more! This can be as easy as a short walk or as vigorous as a multi-mile run, as fast as a "power pose" or as long as a two-hour yoga session; it doesn't matter exactly what you do, only that you get more in tune with your body and boost both your wellbeing and your faith.

  • Use the "five-second" law. No, not the meat that has been dumped on the ground! The five-second rule is about meeting good thoughts and motivating ideas in practice. Do something to make that great idea real in five seconds.

  • Practice the vision of your performance. Close your eyes and take a few minutes to imagine the scenario in which you have accomplished your objectives, using all five senses and paying attention to the details.

  • Be prepared— for whatever scenario you're about to experience. If you're going to get a job interview, make sure you've been training, know about the business, and have some good questions ready to ask. If you're going on a date, take some time to raise your confidence, dress up well, and get a plan A and a plan B (and maybe even a plan C!) to make sure it's going on.

  • Limit your use of social media. Spend less time watching the screen and more time enjoying the world around you.

  • Meditate on that. Establish a regular practice of mindfulness to examine your emotions, track them, and isolate yourself from them. Cultivating a sense of inner peace will go a long way towards developing a healthy sense of self-esteem.

  • Keep your priorities a mystery. You don't have to keep all your hopes and dreams to yourself, just make sure you save some of your objective dreaming and achievement just for you — it can make you more likely to reach them, and even more fulfilled when you do.

  • Practice affirmations (like those mentioned later in this piece). Allow time to say positive things about yourself and circumstances in which you still feel confused.
    Create the faith through loss. Using failure as an opportunity to learn and develop, and avoid failure by trying new things and taking calculated risks (Laurinavicius, 2017).