Low self esteem: 4 signs that indicate you need to work on yourself

It isn’t just intention and effort that helps build strong personal relationships, and a successful career. You need to trust yourself and your abilities; simply put, you need to have a strong sense of self esteem.

The term ‘self esteem’ refers to an individual’s own evaluation of their worth. It is this evaluation that determines our confidence, level of resilience to overcome adversity and the ability to work towards our goals. This also means that those who have low self esteem might experience emotions such as shame, unworthiness and despair. You might have the right intention and skills but to truly do your best, personally and professionally, you need to also develop your self esteem.

Here are four signs that you have low self esteem, and need to fix it at the earliest:

1. You don’t take criticism well

When you don’t trust your own abilities, you also internalize the belief that everyone you meet is more talented than you. You walk around feeling conscious. Hence, you might end up feeling like every piece of criticism is an attack on your personality. The thing is that constructive criticism can be extremely beneficial in terms of improving your skills. So, having low self esteem might keep you from growing personally by making you look at criticism from a negative lens.

2. You tend to avoid social interaction

Due to feeling conscious about your personality and, at times, even feeling inferior as compared to those around you, you might pull back from social interactions. Cancelling invitations from friends and colleagues once in a while is only understandable, but doing it regularly can have a significant impact on your mental health. It can make you feel lonely and exacerbate your self esteem issues. So, it’s important to not fear how people will judge you, but put yourself out there in order to build healthy personal relationships.

3. You’re extremely sensitive

When you are suffering from low self esteem, it can really affect your emotional health and make you feel extremely sensitive. Small things like your friend not responding to your texts instantly, or your boss asking you to make changes to a particular document might pull down your mood, making you think you’re not good enough. In fact, most people with low self esteem also go through the issue of overthinking. Needless to say, this can have quite an impact on how your day turns out as well as your mental health.

4. You avoid pursuing things due to the fear of failure

From enrolling yourself in a particular academic course and applying for a job you really want, to not signing up for an extracurricular activity you really want to learn. Yes, these are the negative consequences of having low self esteem that can keep you from doing things due to a constant fear of failure. Not having enough confidence in your abilities can have a major effect on how your future turns out. In fact, it can lead you to feel extremely frustrated.

Ladies, build your self esteem in a healthy way to see a positive impact in your life!