sarahmichigan | Thoughts on Self-Esteem

this is a slightly modified version of a comment I made in a friend's journal about what your self-esteem should be based on:

I think everyone starts out with inherent value, but I DO think that at least part of your self esteem is AND SHOULD BE based on what you do. If you go around chanting New Age self-affirmations about "I'm so special, I'm an awesome writer, I am sleek and fit" but you don't actually DO anything special, never try to write anything and get it published, and never work out-- you're puffing yourself up with false self-esteem.

If you DO lots of volunteer work, write often but only get published once in a while in small, local presses, and work out 3-4 times a week, but beat yourself up for not doing as well as persons X or Y, then you have falsely low self-esteem and shouldn't be comparing yourself to others.

If your esteem of yourself matches your accomplishments, accomplishments that YOU have decided are important and realistic for you and NOT in comparison to others, then I think you'd have an appropriate sense of self esteem.

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Thoughts?