
It is incredible how something that you can’t touch and is actually inside of you, can affect you so much. Self-esteem is one of the pillars for loving yourself, and to find happiness. But there are so many things going on around us, that self-esteem is always in jeopardy. For example, according to a study from a Dove campaign, “Girls who watch TV commercials featuring underweight models lose self-confidence and become more dissatisfied with their own bodies”.
Other studies state the following:
- Only 1 of 2 seventh graders say they like the way they look.
- 9 of 10 girls want to change their physical appearance.
- “Children with very low self-esteem, or what the researchers called
self-derogation, were 1.6 times more likely to meet the criteria for drug dependence nine years later than other children.”
So, in conclusion, self-esteem is a big deal. In this article we will not learn what is actually self-esteem and how to work with it.
To understand self-esteem, it helps to break the term into two words. Let’s take a look at the word esteem (say: ess-teem) first. Esteem is a fancy word for thinking that someone or something is important or valuing that person or thing. For example, if you really admire someone, it means you hold him in high esteem. And self means, well, yourself! So put the two words together and it’s easier to see what self-esteem is. It’s how much you value yourself and how important you think you are. It’s how you see yourself and how you feel about your achievements.
I was reading an article on Psychology Online. It showed an study between differences of internal and external motivation. So you can understand what this terms are, internal motivation means simply “self help motivation“, ways you motivate yourself. On the contrary, external motivation means someone else is trying to motivate you, or something (like money, for example). The report conclusions were the following:
“Although our society is largely extrinsically-motivated by external rewards such as money, fameand power, research has indicated those who are intrinsically-motivated by inner desires for creativity, fulfillment and inner satisfaction are psychologically healthier and happier.”
This is just a recent study. Older studies from real scientists (people who actually make some research, who don’t say everything that comes to their mind… like “gurus”) were focused on the same deal, and had the same results. For more info, read about the theories of motivation here.
Conclusion: the most important motivation… comes from yourself! People can give you money, cars, or diamonds, but what actually keeps you going is your selfmotivation.
So how do you motivate yourself, without all those material things? Danny Cox, author of the book “Seize the Day”, explains the self help motivation guidelines to achieving a great day and staying happier than ever.
Receive Automatically To Your Mail Every New Article We Write. Just Type Your Email and Click Enter, or Suscribe Via Feed Under: