How's Your Self Esteem?

Respond to each of the following with a True or False statement.



1. Generally, I feel like I have to be successful in all things.

2. A number of my acquaintances are often critical or negative of what I do and how I think.

3. I often tackle projects that I know are impossible to complete to my satisfaction.

4. When I focus on the past, I focus more often on my failures than on my successes and on my negative rather than my positive qualities.

5. I make little effort to improve my personal and interpersonal skills.



If you answered "true" to most of these questions, then it seems things are getting in the way of building positive self esteem. If you answered "false" to most of these questions, then you're thinking the way a self esteem coach would want you to.

So, I'm bloggin' about this because I had to take this little quiz in my COM 100 class the other day. We are finished with the public speaking portion so now we're moving onto Interpersonal Communication. And just to go off on my usual tangents, I took Interpersonal Communication at Saddleback on Saturday mornings and it was my most favorite class I have ever taken. I didn't even mind being in class on Saturdays, that's how much I loved it. Anyway, so this portion of COM 100 is going to be great.

Ok, so I took the quiz and got stumped on number 4. Well, not exactly stumped because I knew how to answer the question, but curious. I really thought about it. Not because I didn't know if I focused on my failures or negatives more, because I do quite often, it's because I thought about a lot of different scenarios where I had achieved something and didn't give myself credit for it. I mean, I am more so a negative thinker about myself. Don't get me wrong, I love myself. I love my creativity, I love my ability to make people laugh and smile, I love so many things about my personality. But truth be told, I'm harsh on myself when it comes to my quiet thinking. This sounds totally contradictory. I think negatively about myself, but I love myself. I swear, I'm not a case for a shrink, I just need to work on this.

So anyway, I wrote down things I love about myself and things I would like to improve about myself. I dunno, I figured I needed to after coming to the realization that I'm brutal with myself. I mean, come on, I'm no delicate flower but I shouldn't be beating little Lauren up. And then that led me to sharing with all you fine people because I don't want anyone beating themselves up over there. So go build your self esteem! Woo!