Self-Esteem

Creating a plan of action for self-esteem building increases your chance of creating healthy self-esteem. Once you develop both the awareness that your self-esteem is low and the desire to improve the way you think of yourself, you are ready to craft a solid action plan to build your self-esteem. Author Jessica Kaley from healthyplace.com shows you how.

3 Steps for Your Action Plan for Self-Esteem

Develop a set of goals that define the life you desire -- The first step in building your self-esteem action plan is to make sure that you are heading in a direction in life that is pleasing to you. This is when you accept that you may have a different path than the one your parents mapped out for you or your friends chose for themselves. You can have different goals and still love and respect others, and if they love you they will respect you when you realize your path is your own. When you define your personal vision of success with a set of SMART life goals that cover areas like career, relationships, and health, you honor and love yourself. This is a huge step in building self-esteem.
Identify milestones to track your progress -- Once you know the result you are aiming for, flesh out some mini-goals that will help you track your progress. You don't have to have the whole plan mapped out to begin your journey, but you do need to have the next few steps clear so you can begin. These steps may be creating a new habit like exercise or eating more vegetables to reach a health goal, or it could be learning a new skill to help you reach your career goals. I like to create new milestones every few months so I am not overwhelmed by thinking about all the changes I want to make.
Choose actions that support your weaknesses and utilize your strengths -- You can have the same goals as your friend, but because of your personal set of talents, experiences, and resources your path can be quite different. For example, you may have different amounts of available funds or free time. These may cause you to decide to choose a different way of reaching your next milestones. Imagine yourself choosing which steppingstone to take based on the length of your legs. There's nothing wrong with the length of your legs, but they will determine the path that's right for you.