Self-esteem: The Enamel of Success

[Gaelen]

(excerpted from "Self-esteem: The Enamel of Success" by Cathy Warschaw)

We all experience pride in ourselves when we earn a good grade on an exam or reach a personal goal. In fact, the ability to take pleasure in our achievements is a big reason why we continue to pursue our dreams and take risks. This pride and pleasure we experience is called self-esteem and it is very important to reaching our career goals.

The definition of self-esteem is basically when you have confidence and satisfaction in your own skills and abilities, and it is usually achieved through experiences of personal success. Self-esteem helps you to cope with difficult challenges when they arise and gives you the faith to overcome them.

Self-esteem is critical to your career success. You need lots of it at all stages of your career - whether it's for a job search, as a new employee, working with others, or dealing with stress and deadlines. If you're like most people, you may wonder if you've got enough self-esteem to reach your career goals. Fortunately, there are steps that you can take to build and strengthen your self-worth.

To begin with, create a plan where you can get daily exercise and eat a balanced diet of healthy foods. Maintaining care and respect for your body also has benefits for your mind and promotes healthy thoughts about your self-worth.

Remember to engage in activities that are fun and meaningful to you. Participate regularly in a hobby that you enjoy or perhaps volunteer at an animal shelter if you're fond of furry creatures. Nurturing your interests is a great way to remind yourself of what's important to you.

Reward yourself for your achievements by celebrating with friends, getting a massage, or offering a kind word of praise to yourself. Every time you recognize a success, you are building a stronger trust and support system within yourself.

Create a list of successes that you can refer to in times of self-doubt. This is a wonderful way to stay in touch with your inner strength and reinforce your ability to overcome obstacles.

Lastly, forgive yourself when things don't quite turn out like you expected; being critical of your efforts only serves to chip away at self-esteem. Release any feelings of guilt or shame to make room for poise and confidence.

Using these steps to build and strengthen your self-esteem takes practice and dedication, but the results are well worth your efforts. Your self-esteem is your most valuable asset in reaching your goal of a rewarding career in the dental field - so fixodent and forget it!

How would reinforcing your self-esteem help you reach your goals, give you the energy to stick with the behavior change you've chosen to make this month?

[gitfiddle]

How would reinforcing your self-esteem help you reach your goals, give you the energy to stick with the behavior change you've chosen to make this month?
I think I wrote this somewhere yesterday: I am most likely to crave comfort food when I am frustrated. An accomplishment of any kind will boost my self-esteem and allow me to minimize frustration that might happen. If I'm feeling out of control, I can become frustrated with the most trivial things. High self-esteem helps me keep things in perspective, thus my need for "comfort" is lessened.

[Gaelen]

Gitfiddle, have you ever built yourself a 'success' file? It's a collection of all the good things that happen, the accomplishments, etc. I have one at work that has the congratulatory emails after successful FDA audits, the special awards I've gotten over the years, and the cards from a program called 'Above and Beyond,' where any employee can send a 'thank you' to any other employee who's gone out of his/her way to do a job. We used to have a program of excellence awards, where people got rewarded quarterly for doing excellent work. Only the bosses had to give out all of the money they were budgeted, so some people got awards for the silliest things just to spread the cash around. When those funds dried up, the senior techs started 'Above and Beyond,' to give people an opportunity to directly say thank you. It's been so successful it's spread to other groups and departments and sits. The rewards aren't $100 checks like the old excellence awards...they can be as simple as token for a freebie from the vending machine or a free lunch at the cafeteria or (the favorite) two to four hours off, with pay. But they're a lot more meaningful because they're hand-written, and the reward is immediate.

Anyway, when I need a pick-me-up, or the day has gotten ridiculously frustrating, I go through my 'success' file and remind myself of the good things, rather than let my self-esteem dip and things spiral out of control. Don't know where I heard the idea, but it sure works for me.

[gitfiddle]

Pat that Above and Beyond program sounds interesting. I know people who send out personal thank-yous to people who have helped them on projects. It's silly, but I feel self-conscious to send a "thank's for being my friend" note, even though whenever I've received one it's been a neat boost. Go figure. Probably has something to do with my self-esteem!:rolleyes:

I don't have a file, but I have made a "Blessing List" at times, which has a similar effect. A file would be tangible and a place to put the pics and certificates. My new boss took me to lunch earlier this week and told me what a terrific job I'm doing. Wish I had a video! I need to do that with a couple of co-workers very soon.

[SherryJ]

Pat, and Carol, I have a "what they said about me" file I keep on my computer. Anything that's written about me that's UPLIFTING or ENCOURAGING or how I've helped someone goes into that file, with who said it, and the date. I find this helps outweigh the "file" that runs the negative things said about me through my brain! :)

Sherry

[gitfiddle]

Sherry, my last boss had a "silver file" and a "brown file" for his staff (all tongue in cheek of course). My "brown file" was on wheels! ;)

[Gaelen]

Gitfiddle, one of the best parts about 'Above and Beyond' is that any co-worker--whether in your dept. or not, whether higher on the food chain than you, or in the same position, or lower on the food chain than you--can anonymously pick up the thank-you note, fill it out, and drop it in the 'Above and Beyond' box in the mailroom. Once a week, the Tox supervisors pick up the contents of the box, review all the thank-yous, pass the ones that thank someone in another department on to that supervisor, and pick a reward to go with each thank-you note. If they can't pick a reward by consensus, they pull one out of a hat. Then, with the reward, the thank-you appears on your desk. But everyone knows that not only is the 'thank you' between you and your co-worker--your boss has seen that you've done something that made someone else's job easier. So while it's personal and the reward comes more quickly and is more appropriate, your boss can't help but notice that someone else is thinking you do good work. One of the things it's had the most success in is in teaching managers how right, important and successful it can be just to say 'thank you' once in awhile!

It's helped create an employee-helping-employee culture that in many ways is very different from other workplaces, and fosters some of the best morale I've ever worked with...especially at the worker-bee level, where morale in a depressing and physically intense job can often be very low.

[gitfiddle]

Sounds almost too good to be true and it's hard to imagine in my workplace. Mostly because it seems very organized and our culture is different. We seem to have a fairly upbeat place, but it's food for thought. Thank you for sharing that idea. I may have an opportunity to share it with others.