I used to have low self-esteem.

When I was 7 years old we moved to the city where everyone spoke a different language. The only language I was fluent in was Sambal. I knew and understood age-appropriate English words, but I had difficulty speaking and understanding long consecutive sentences and therefore could not participate in English conversations.

What was worse was it took me a long time to transliterate everything in my head whenever my teachers discussed lessons in English and that was exhausting!

When it came to Tagalog, it was hopeless. I could not understand a word of it so I could not even transliterate from Tagalog to Sambal.

To top it all off, everyone in school was already writing in cursive. I was only writing in print because students in the province only learn cursive at the age of 8.

And so I couldn’t understand my classmates, I couldn’t understand my teachers and I could not understand the cursive words on the board nor could I copy them!

I could not even communicate what I was feeling or thinking!

You can just imagine how I felt in school! I felt so small, and I assumed everyone in school thought I was stupid. And the more I felt that that’s what they thought about me, the more shy and withdrawn I became.

As my grades suffered, so did my self-esteem.

As the school year went by, my English and Tagalog communication skills improved and I learned to write in cursive the same year too. But no matter how much my skills progressed in the succeeding years, I still suffered with low self-esteem for the next 9 years.

I discovered my real power in college and I am proud to say that my self-esteem and self-confidence have grown and soared over the years. But that is another story for another day.

The point I would like to make in this post is that it’s tough to overcome low self-esteem specially if it’s rooted in experiences that happened early in life.

But it’s POSSIBLE.

If you have struggled with low self-esteem like I have, know that you’re not alone.

And remember that there are steps you can take to start building your self-esteem and self-confidence.

In this post, I’ll be sharing 10 ways to improve your self-esteem so that you can empower yourself to go after your dreams and transform your life.

These are ways that have worked for me and for many others who have had the same struggle.

So if you’re ready to start feeling better about yourself and your abilities, just continue reading.

Improve Your Self-Esteem through These Simple Strategies

1.Recognize and appreciate your strengths.

Everyone has been gifted talents, special abilities and skills. What you can do is to take time to reflect on what you do best and identify the areas in which you can make use of them for your own purpose or for the greater community. Knowing that you can contribute something of value to society will make you feel good about yourself.

You may also focus on intentionally harnessing your special talents and abilities and ensure that you’re getting better every day.

It is also good to remember that your strengths are not limited to the talents and abilities that we usually think of like writing, speaking, playing an instrument, crafting, etc.

I remember a time when I asked my students to share their strengths and there was this student who told me that she did not have any. I told her that she just needed more time to reflect or more time to discover the things she was good at. And then I proceeded to ask her, “But then don’t you find it so easy to make your classmates smile and laugh?” She nodded. “That’s one of your strengths,” I said and she beamed.

If you’re good at making people feel good about themselves, if you’re good at giving advice, making people smile, making friends, if you’re committed, persevering, loyal, loving, reliable, etc., these are all valuable strengths that you should be proud of and develop even more!

2. Identify your weaknesses.

As you pause and reflect on your strengths, find time to reflect on your weaknesses too. Identify your weaknesses and accept them. Then proceed to planning a course of action on how you can address them. Identify the ways you can improve yourself in that particular area or think about how you can turn a particular weakness into a strength instead.

3. Embrace a growth mindset.

Train your mind into believing that you can develop yourself and your abilities through hard work and dedication. There are many self-help books that you can read and blogs like The Pink Leap that you can subscribe to that can help you develop a growth mindset.

4. Practice self-care.

No matter how busy you are, take time to ensure your personal needs are met.

Remember to eat wisely. Choose the foods that will keep you healthy. Learn about the foods that can help you boost your mood and improve your mental health so that you can intentionally incorporate them in your daily diet.

Ensure that you are drinking the right amount of water daily and sleep for 6 hours or longer each night to maximize its health benefits.

Wake up earlier than usual so you can exercise before you prepare for work.

A strong and healthy mind and body will allow you to absorb more knowledge, recognize opportunities, help you make good decisions, keep your spirits up, manage your anxieties, keep your skin glowing, your hair strong and shiny and your eyes clear and sparkling.

Your clothes will fit you better and you will have the energy to finish your tasks AND do the things you love.

You will look good and feel good! And you can do more good!

Imagine what this will do to your self-esteem and confidence!

And then think about your weekly or monthly schedule and see how you can incorporate the things you love doing into your weekly or monthly schedule.

Make time to do the things you love. See a movie, read a good book, craft, have lunch with a good friend.

Once you have developed your self-care routine, you’re going to realize that it’s not only keeping you healthy and sane but it’s also a lot of fun. It will also allow you to build stronger relationships with your loved ones and empower you to be the best mom, wife, daughter or friend to them.

When you’re taking good and proper care of yourself, you’re allowing yourself to become the best YOU! And that has enormous impact on your self-esteem and confidence!

5. Set achievable goals.

Setting goals is very important in your journey towards your best self and may benefit you in a variety of ways.

It will be easy to track and achieve your goals when they are SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and time-bound). So when you write down your goals, it will help if you allot at least an hour for reflection and goal setting.

Setting goals and achieving them will keep you feeling good and powerful.

6. Surround yourself with positive people.

Negative people will only bring you down and give you excuses not to pursue your goals and dreams. Avoid them at all costs. If they are family members, it’s better not to discuss your goals at length with them because they might just cause you to doubt yourself with their negativity.

Positive people, on the other hand, will inspire you, encourage you and keep you motivated. Many of them have experienced and overcome personal challenges too so you can learn a lot from them.

7. Be kind to yourself.

Be compassionate and kind to yourself. Forgive yourself when you make mistakes or when things don’t go as planned. You treat your friend nicely so why would your treatment of yourself be different? Treat yourself the way you would treat a good friend — with love, understanding and empathy.

Remind yourself that you’re doing the best you can but that sometimes there are factors that are out of your control.

8. Practice positive self-talk.

Learn to talk to yourself in a positive way. If it has been your practice to put yourself down and berate yourself, it’s time for that to change.

Remember that your negative language is destructive. Everything you tell yourself is absorbed by your subconscious and it believes everything too!

One of the best things you can do for yourself is to start talking kindly to yourself and to remind yourself of your worth and capabilities. Write positive affirmations and recite them every day. This will rewire and reprogram your subconscious to believe the best about you.

Want to learn more about positive affirmations? Discover how they can help you achieve your goals by reading this post.

9. Learn new things. Learn new skills.

Read and absorb all the knowledge you can. Read, read and read. Learn new skills. You can do so by enrolling in a course or watching YouTube videos.

Your knowledge and skills will make you feel capable, give you a sense of achievement and empower you to create better opportunities for yourself and make a greater contribution to society.

10. Take action.

It’s time to put your fears aside and take the right steps towards your goals.

You already know what to do, all you need now is to act on these strategies so you can finally boost your self-esteem and start the process of transforming your life.

Reminders

Your self-esteem was probably profoundly affected by your life experiences through no fault of your own but it is only YOU who has the power to implement appropriate strategies so you can break free from the chains that keep you stuck in a life that is lacking in fulfillment and joy.

You can do it! Do these strategies and there will be no doubt that your low self-esteem will be turned into a healthy and truly transformative self-pride that will pave the way to unshakable self-confidence.

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