Lakeshia Ekeigwe
When you feel confident and powerful, your self-esteem may be high. At other times though, especially when you face difficult work challenges like losing a motion, missing a crucial filing date or receiving less than stellar feedback on your performance review, the way you feel about yourself can cause your self-esteem to take a hit. I want you to know the truth about self-esteem.
Just because you are a professional doesn’t automatically guarantee you will have a consistently healthy self-esteem. Because for every person on the planet, self-esteem can be fluid.
Healthy self-esteem is the foundation of having a good relationship with yourself. A good relationship with yourself is the foundation for having good relationships with others. When your self-esteem is healthy, you will protect yourself, respect yourself and treat yourself with compassion and kindness. This is important, because you cannot do for others what you do not do for yourself.
Healthy self-esteem doesn’t just happen. People with high self-esteem have things they consciously do to boost their self-esteem.
10 Simple Things You Can Do To Boost Your Self-Esteem
- Do something today that feels likes love to you. Whether it is an hour of quiet time on your own, a leisurely stroll along the beach or at a park; listening to your favorite music or reading your favorite book. Self-love will boost your self-esteem tremendously!
- Refuse to engage in negative self-talk. Sometimes we speak about ourselves, in ways we would never speak to any other person. When a negative thought shows up, think of something you love about yourself and create ways to spread the love.
- Acknowledge your daily achievements. Write down 3 (or 33) things you do every day to add value to the lives of your clients, colleagues, friends and family.
- Stop the playback Loop. Don’t obsess over negative feedback you may have received about your work performance, merited or not. Refuse to replay or loop the specific words or tone of the person delivering the message. Extract the value. Commit to improvement where necessary and move on. Release anything else in the feedback that does not serve you.
- Graciously accept and embrace compliments you receive. Don’t dismiss them. Instead, honor that someone has shared what they appreciate and value about you. Write them down and read them when you feel your self-esteem could use a boost.
- Spend time with friends and family and tell them what you love and respect about them. Then, have them share the same with you about you. This exercise just might change your life.
- Reevaluate so-called ‘friends’ or relationships that tear you down. Do not share your massive goals and big dreams with them and avoid being in their company. They will diappoint and hurt you which will damage your self-esteem.
- Keep special cards, notes and emails where you can access them easily and often. Read them over and over again, especially when you need a little pick me up.
- List out accolades, awards and gifts. Then write out how you felt when you received them.
- Treat yourself to flowers every week. Even a simple bouquet of Daisies can do the trick. They don’t have to be expensive, just cheery and something that makes you feel loved.
ABOUT LAKESHIA EKEIGWE:
Lakeshia Ekeigwe, CEO & Founder of Coaching Attorneys and Life School for Lawyers, has professional training in life and business coaching as well as in Leadership Development and Conflict Resolution. Lakeshia helps women lawyers pinpoint what is not working in their lives and through her Rapid Clarity Coaching Process teaches them how to fix it and to create balance in their life, business & relationships.