Self confidence, self worth and self esteem are closely linked to each other. When one of these is affected, the other two also start wavering.
Life for everyone, has its share of ups and downs, making no exceptions for anybody. Life teaches to accept the downs gracefully and also appreciate the ups with humility.
Before we begin to deal with a low self esteem, let us get to the bottom of it. We will have a look at some of the most relatable real life scenarios happening to people which is the root cause of lowered self esteem.
Scene1:
A student has scored low marks in the exam while his friends have done much better. His parents, out of disappointment give him an earful, which they themselves will feel bad about later. The youngster is sitting in his room, who has lost confidence in academics. To make things worse, he has a younger sibling, bright at academics and always a top performer. He feels worthless. This leads to his damaged self-esteem.
Scene2:
It’s been more than a year since you have graduated. All your friends have started working while you are still struggling with interviews and feeling frustrated. Seeing this, your family is pressurizing you to apply for any job and join any company that selects you whether or not you like the job profile. Your confidence is declining. This will have a direct effect on your self-esteem as you will not feel good about yourself.
Scene3:
For more than three years you have been working in a field you joined only because you didn’t have opportunities where you actually wanted to work on. It was high time to join a place as the prolonged gap spoils your portfolio. You are still there and not quitting it, only because you have to support your family. There is a sure shot chance, your performance is not as good as others. You are frequently getting negative feedbacks from bosses and seniors.
Scene4:
You are rejected by the one you really liked and with whom you imagined your future and your entire life. Need to say more?
Scene5:
You are now of an age where people get married. You scroll your social media, just to divert your mind out of the daily chaos and relax for sometime. You find your schoolmates, college mates posting engagement pics, marriage selfies, honeymoon albums. You press the like button, may or may not comment depending on your mood and continue to scroll. Eventually, you receive an invitation in the form of e-cards from your friends on your chat messenger (yes, that’s a modern age way of getting wedding invitation). You have already decided not to be a part of the event even though you badly wanted to. At the same time, you feel really bad for missing out a great get together. You later see the pics your friends uploaded.
Now what is your take away after looking at these scenarios? What exactly comes to your mind when you hear such stories?
The only thing to say is — It’s common. Common problems have common solutions. If there is no solution to a problem, it isn’t a problem at all. Now, it’s time for some of the common solutions. So these are the things you should always keep in mind or remind yourself again and again whenever you feel your life is hell.
You’re not the only one.
We as humans are so engrossed in our lives that we only notice our problems, struggles, pain, sorrow that we don’t even care to even think about what’s happening with others. Only if you had the opportunity to know about your friends’ lives, you would have known their pain. Your school friend has recently had been laid off from his company. Your senior had a bad breakup with a partner. Your college friend broke his marriage within a year after he got married. It only makes you appreciate your life, however bad it is.
Nothing lasts forever.
It’s late night and heavily raining with loud thundering. The situation is scary enough to give you sleepless night. You, however doze off after some time. Next morning you wake up with birds chirping, quiet sky and you see the rains retreated. That makes you feel relieved. The same applies to your life. No matter how bad the phase you are going through, it’s a phase at the end. It will end too.
Have faith.
Faith is the only thing your life can’t take away from you provided it’s strong enough. Faith, however hard to convince anyone against losing it, yet is the strongest weapon to fight any kind of adversity. Always have faith in good, good things will come to you.
Keep moving.
Be it academics, career or relationships. You can’t hold on to it for long if things don’t turn the way you wanted. You can’t just wait and think the world will stop rotating and revolving. Life goes on. So you have to move ahead too.
Be good.
The most important thing to remember is to preserve your sanity amid challenges. Whatever you do in life, have your intentions good. Always wish a life for others what you wish for yourself. You don’t need to be extra nice. Just be kind and wise.
There are so many more scenarios which can be covered but not there in this article. If you have any such incidents to tell, share them in the comment section.
