335 Remember it Makes Sense to Enjoy Work
336 Deal with the Subversive Enemies of Concentration
337 Resist Becoming the Office Martyr
338 Stand Up to Bullies, but not Alone
339 Be Prepared to Step Outside Your Job Description
340 Stand Up When Making or Taking Difficult Phone Calls
341 Don’t Make Excuses for Wanting to get a Life
342 Make Sure Your Chosen Image has Repetitive Impact
343 Keep a Work Notebook at Home
344 Think Positively about Conflict
345 Never Think You are Too Old to Change
347 Have a Fun Lunch-break Once a Week
348 Expect Less Support at Times of High Pressure
349 See Failure as a Step on The Road to Success
350 Welcome Frustration with Yourself
351 Clear Your Surrounding Clutter
352 Don’t Put Up With Injustices in Silence
353 Be ‘Cheeky’ and Seek Out High-quality Mentors
354 Prepare to Protect Your Privacy
355 Beat Worrying about Your Future with Contingency Planning
356 Don’t be a Slave to the Telephone
358 Take Your Honours Gracefully
359 Don’t Give Up Even if You Intend to Move on
360 Don’t be too Proud to Delegate
361 Check Your Time Management
362 Take a Leaf Out of Nelson Mandela’s Book
363 Stay Ever-ready for Job Interviews
365 Keep the Self-Esteem Bible and its Good Companions Handy
In this fast-changing, globally competitive world, our self-esteem has a tough survival course to work through. Nearly everyday, or sometimes several times in one day, our self-esteem can get knocked about. If left unrepaired, some scars can last a lifetime.
Self-esteem is having a good opinion of yourself. It should not be confused with arrogance or vanity. Having high self-esteem is a healthy psychological state – a valuable inner resource that we need to protect.
People with high self-esteem are generally calm, relaxed people who are positive, purposeful, expressive and assertive. They are sociable and cooperative; at home in their well-nourished and well-exercised bodies, and are continually searching for ways and means to improve their behaviour and performance. They do not constantly seek the approval of others and are highly capable of acting independently.
When our self-esteem is low we can become fearful, negative, passive, tense, aggressive, indecisive, self-destructive and unmotivated, and we feel powerless and unworthy. As well as affecting our happiness, low self-esteem also impacts on our work and relationships.
With the odds for success and happiness so heavily weighted against people with shaky self-esteem, you can’t afford simply to sit back and patiently hope you will gain personal strength and feelings of self-worth. You need to move into action!
So whether your self-esteem is chronically low or you are just experiencing a trough at the moment, this book provides 365 tips to motivate you to assert your needs and develop your potential for success and happiness.
How to use the Self-Esteem Bible
The format of this book is very user-friendly, so you can use it in any way you like. You may want to read one tip a day, read the whole book at once and devise your own plan, or simply dip into it as and when you need it.
Although there is one tip for every day of the year, you will notice that there are no specific time guidelines for completing them. This is because you will be working at your own individual pace. Sometimes you will ignore a tip that is not relevant to you or your lifestyle, and at other times you will want to spend a week or longer working on an exercise. You decide where and when you want to linger. Some tips contain exercises and are therefore a little longer than others, but most are short and will be quick and easy to put straight into practice.
The book is divided into four parts, each covering a different area. Part 1 is concerned with health, as your physical and mental health lays the foundation for the other self-esteem building work that follows. Our self-esteem is always more fragile when we are sick or tired as our defences are down and we don’t have our usual capacity to deal with put-downs. So the first step is to get yourself in tip-top condition.
Part 2 deals with personal development; this will equip you with the personal power you need to work on your relationships with others, your career and any other area of your life.
Part 3 looks at how you can form and maintain healthy, positive relationships. This will be helpful if you are being taken for granted, ignored, rejected or unfairly criticized by others, or if your low self-esteem is sabotaging your relationships.