In the face of all adversity and loss, the person who has truly been building self esteem does not lose himself, but by knowing his true value, is able to adapt and change to all life circumstances.
Back to John: It was indeed a challenge getting John out of his failure path. More so because the psychologist set him up for failure--the psychologist actually set the path for him to stay stuck with low self esteem. Eventually he got up the hill and over the crest. He learned to overcome his low self esteem, not by graduating machine shop school (although he did), but by learning to deal successfully with life's challenges and to like himself in the face of disappointment.
Building self esteem the right way is from self involves asking questions. What is missing here? Why with so many programs for building self esteem is it still a crisis? It is clearly insane to teach one to obtain self esteem from his/her accomplishments.
It's also to realize that:
Comparing ourselves to anyone else is to kill self esteem
Some of our best laid plans will simply fall through.
We are emotional beings and rather than be ruled by our emotions we can acknowledge them and move through them.
We each are a child of the universe deserving of feeling good about ourselves regardless of what we do or don't do.
Building self esteem the right way is from self involves asking questions. What is missing here? Why with so many programs for building self esteem is it still a crisis? It is clearly insane to teach one to obtain self esteem from his/her accomplishments.
It's also to realize that:
Comparing ourselves to anyone else is to kill self esteem
Some of our best laid plans will simply fall through.