Million Dollar Habits – Page 33
Most psychologists today agree that your level of self-esteem
is the most important
part of your personality, and largely predicts your success or failure,
happiness or
unhappiness, in every area of your life. In fact, your self-esteem is so important
that you tend to organize your whole life around it. Almost everything you do is
either
to gain self-esteem, or to protect against the loss of self-esteem.
The rule with regard to your self-esteem is that
“Everything Counts!”
Everything
that happens to you and around you affects your self-esteem in some way.
Everything either increases your self-esteem or lowers it. Everything that happens
to you either supports your self-esteem or threatens it.
You are like the proverbial
“long tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs.”
Every word or gesture of other
people toward you affects your self-esteem in some way. The preservation and
development of your self-esteem thus becomes
the key to high performance,
happiness and great success.
Comparing Your Behavior With Your Ideal
Your self-esteem is affected by many factors. One of the most important is the
distance
between your self-image, the way you see yourself
in the moment
, and
your
self-ideal, the way you would ideally like to be sometime
in the future.
Whenever you feel that your current performance and behavior is consistent with
the best person
that you can possibly be, your self-esteem goes up. You feel
happier and more exhilarated. You have more energy and enthusiasm. You are
more positive and personable with others.
