Cultivating the Seed of Self-Esteem
Focusing and Building on Strengths for Peak Performance
Nov 6, 2009
Self-esteem is the overall evaluation people make about themselves, and whether positive or negative, it has important implications on motivation and behavior. There are two main factors in cultivating the seed of self-esteem:
- Self-Worth – Feeling that one deserves good things in life; and
- Self-Trust – A belief that one can handle the things that need to be done in life.
The seeds of self-esteem are planted early in life from interactions with people, events, and things. People may be given encouragement and praise for accomplishments and begin developing positive feelings.
Though, self-esteem is not built by praise alone. According to psychologist Martin Seligman, self-esteem is caused by having numerous successful or failing attempts at a variety of activities. It is the actual accomplishing of goals that assists in feeling good and developing self-trust, not just getting external praise.
The consequences of high self-esteem are numerous and have implications on career success, mental health, motivation, and productivity. As people feel more competent with the ability to solve problems and deal with novel situations it helps with managing stress and overcoming obstacles. Also, self-esteem provides the means to get past negative emotions, for instance, from being insulted or making a mistake. Those with high self-esteem are able to justify self-worth and surpass the problematic situation and related emotions.
Identifying and Building on Strengths
Focusing on strengths and legitimate accomplishments provides the means to improve self-esteem. The process of building on strengths involves:
- establishing strength based goals;
- pursuing goals with necessary resources;
- achieving the goal; and
- developing self-esteem-like feelings.
Accomplishments relate to the development of what is called self-efficacy. Self-efficacy is an important concept related to having confidence in one's abilities. Specifically, a belief one can successfully perform a task under certain conditions, and the ability to coordinate skills in challenging or changing situations. The straightforward idea would be, "people who think they can perform well on a task do better than those who think they will do poorly."
Believing you can achieve something is perhaps the most important ingredient in the recipe for success. Beliefs impact the a person's behaviors, they impact one's affect or mood, and they determine how well a person will persevere when faced with obstacles.
Continually accomplishing greater goals, and setting high expectations that are achievable, will improve self-efficacy for these tasks. This relates to the Galeta effect. This idea proposes a type of self-fulfilling prophecy in which high expectations lead to high performance. This relates to peak performance or exceptional accomplishments in a given activity.
Peak Performance and Flow Theory
Do you enjoy meaningful challenges? Flow theory is based on positive psychology research, and examines a mental state experienced when someone is engaged in peak performance or completely focused on the activity in the moment.
Flow relates to self-efficacy and is experienced when perceived opportunities for action are in balance with the actor’s perceived skills. Finding this balance helps to operate with full potential. For instance, if the challenge exceeds one's skills, the person may become vigilant and anxious, thus limiting performance. If a person's skills exceed the challenge the person first relaxes and then gets bored. Flow activities push skill level boundaries just enough to improve the quality of the experience, where self-growth occurs and builds self-esteem and self-efficacy.
Continual Cultivation of Self-Esteem and Confidence
By focusing and building on strengths people are more likely to experience flow and peak performance. It is important to recognize that self-esteem and self-efficacy can be impacted at any stage in life, and for this reason learning to bounce back from mistakes and setbacks provides the ability for growth.
Before setting goals and facing challenges, it is important to make sure that both motivation and resources are in place. By doing so it is much more likely that success will follow and lead to growth in self-esteem and confidence.
Sources:
DuBrin, A. J. Human Relations: Interpersonal Job-Orientated Skills. New Jersey: Pearson. 2009.
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