Self esteem is the way we think about ourselves in relation to how we use our energy and recognise our confidence. The more we use our energy positively and the more we appreciate how easily we can do things, the higher our self esteem rises.
At the golf club there are golfers who moan and complain that their golf is in a dreadful state. The result is they go out and play a bad round of golf.
By changing their thoughts to thinking positively, they could instead be thinking about how they could improve their golf and take constructive action.
People enjoy playing golf with me as I lift their spirits and their golf improves. Golf is a game of the mind – visualise a beautiful shot, know it will happen and then hit the ball. The results are rewarding!
In the physician heal thyself manner, I had a blind chip up a hill and on to a plateau. I applied my visualise and know technique, hit the ball, walked on to the green with no sight of my ball. I told my partner it must be a birdie, walked straight up to the hole and Yes, there was my ball in the hole!
I felt great, my self esteem rose and good golf continued.
Would you like to feel more confident?
Think about what makes you feel proud about yourself.
What was it about the event or the situation that made you feel good about yourself?
Write down as many instances as you can think of where you felt happy and good about yourself.
Keep the list near to you for frequent reference and add any other situations as they come up in your memory.
In case nothing leaps into your mind, here are a few ideas to get you going :
Perhaps you have been kind to someone – helped them with something you can do and they are unable to do.
Maybe you have been really good with doing your exercise daily and can give yourself a pat on the back for the routine of exercising and the reward of feeling better.
You might have won a competition – sporting activity or literary or artistic or something else.
Would you like to use your energy more positively?
When you get up in the morning and it is pouring with rain, what do you think to yourself?
Oh, how awful it is raining would be a negative response.
Oh, how wonderful to have such perfect weather for doing my tidying, filing or another indoor job that needs doing would be a positive response.
To use your energy positively, start by observing what you and other people say. As you become aware of negative statements, change them in your mind to something positive.
A word of warning – others might not be ready to hear you change their negative speech into positive words, so wise to either check first or just make the positive changes in your mind.
Let’s take an example – I never fail – negative words
becomes – I always succeed – positive words
If you say these two phrases out loud, which one makes you feel better and uplifts you?
Keeping your thoughts and conversation positive can really enhance your energy as well as your feelings.
By increasing self esteem you have taken a step towards letting go of your bad habits and replacing them with good ones.
