From the Leader of Wellbeing & Learning - Senior Campus
Improving Self-Esteem
Self-esteem is the opinion you have about yourself and your abilities. It can be influenced by factors like your confidence, your identity, and your sense of belonging. Self esteem can be high, low or somewhere in-between.
Low self esteem
Having low self-esteem might mean you aren’t confident in your abilities, your personality, or the value you bring to others in your life. Low self esteem might be caused by:
- not feeling a sense of security in life
- confusion around your identity
- feeling like you don't belong with your family, friends, or work colleagues.
Good self esteem
On the contrary, having good self-esteem means you have positive beliefs about your abilities and your place in the world. It can be caused by:
- being confident in your ability to create change and withstand challenges in your life
- a sense of confidence and pride in your identity
- feeling like you belong in your family, school, or group of friends.
What are the 4 components of self-esteem?
Your self-esteem is made up from four attitudes you have about yourself: your self-confidence, your sense of identity, feeling a sense of belonging and being self-assured in your abilities.
Your self-confidence
Self-confidence is all about your sense of security you have in yourself and in your life. You can only branch out and grow if you feel secure that your needs are being met. Having your needs met means you have things like a place to live, physical health, and stable finances.
Your sense of identity
Your sense of identity is important to your self esteem because it is the knowledge you have about yourself. This can include your confidence in your body, your job, your beliefs, your culture, or anything else about yourself. It’s helpful to be confident in these things because they can help you understand what you need and what you want in life.
Feeling a sense of belonging
Belonging is all about feeling welcome and an active part of where we actually are in life, whether that’s in your school, your workplace, your family, or the other groups you’re a part of. Sometimes, if you don’t feel belonging in one group you’re in, like your workplace, you can find your sense of belonging in another group, like your family or friends.
Being self-assured in your abilities
It’s important to feel confident in your abilities so that you can control what happens to you in life. If you’re confident in what you can do, you can handle big challenges and make the changes you need to make to respond to them. However, being confident in your abilities isn’t just about succeeding. It’s about learning from your mistakes and being resilient in the face of failure. Improving self-esteem can seem like a huge task, but there are lots of different self-management techniques that can help. Check out our self-esteem tips below - these can be a checklist of strategies to try out on your journey to improving your opinion of yourself and your confidence.
How to improve self-esteem
- Be kind to yourself.
- Try your best not to compare yourself to others.
- Exercise regularly to release endorphins and ‘happiness hormones’ like dopamine and serotonin.
- Set realistic goals for yourself and check in with your progress regularly.
- Remember: everyone makes mistakes, so don’t beat yourself up when you do.
- Focus on what is within your control.
- Make time for your hobbies and the things you enjoy.
- Celebrate your victories, no matter how big or small.
- Be a good friend, and make time to spend with your loved ones.
- Surround yourself with supportive people.
Mrs Andrea Utoikamanu
Leader of Wellbeing & Learning - Senior Campus
Leader of Wellbeing - Year 11