Are YOU Holding YOU Back….Realize Your True Greatness Today!

Building esteem takes work. It’s not a simple matter of clicking your heels three times, repeating a few phrases, and you’re transported instantly to a place of blissful self-acceptance. Building esteem is a process. It requires something of you – your time, your thoughts, your energy, your emotions, your passion. It requires you to challenge deeply- and long-held beliefs about yourself and others. It requires you to question, to reflect, to answer, and to question again. Building self-esteem requires that at some level, there lies within you a sense of self worth that believes you have the right to be free of debilitating feelings of inadequacy, unworthiness, or defectiveness. At some point, you have to get tired of the low self image, of constantly putting yourself down and beating yourself up. You get to a point where you’re ready for change.

Building esteem is a process. It takes time to get to the point where you stop listening to and believing the negatives. If you are struggling with low self esteem, it sometimes will take every tool in your emotional toolbox, every weapon in your arsenal to not give in to feelings of inadequacy. There are numerous strategies and techniques to use. Different things work for different people. I have to pull out what I know to be great about myself. Here's an exercise you can do to develop your self-image. Commit to learning something new. Think of something you've put off doing, or would like to do, and do it. Take the time to learn how to do it. Whether it's knitting a sweater, learning to play guitar, developing a website or starting a business. Commit to doing it and take action. The feeling of accomplishment you'll feel when you have mastered the skill and/or achieved the success will be awesome!"elf to counter what I think falls short in myself. I read books that inspire me, listen to tapes that encourage me, keep people around who believe in me. It’s a day-at-a-time process and that’s how I approach it – each day acknowledging my accomplishments, no matter how small, until I get where I want to be, enjoying the best in me at all times!

- Shannon Lavenia