Mike had become a wealthy entrepreneur, but he had a hard time enjoying his business success because it seemed that every minute he wasn't solving a business problem he was worried about what others thought of him and what he could do to get their approval.
Janet probably had as many good ideas as Mike, but because she was plagued with procrastination, she was nowhere near as successful.
Roger always talked about his dream of doing something on his own, but he just didn't have the confidence to leave his safe (and boring) job.
And finally there was Marlene, who complained of bouts of anxiety that seemed to come over her without warning and paralyze her.
Stories like these from our clients go on forever. We've heard tens of thousands of them. It seems as if no one really escapes.
Escapes what? ... Having a low sense of self-esteem, a negative sense of oneself, a little voice in one's head that is constantly critical of oneself.
Before I explain why so many people have low self-esteem, let me first dispel a couple common myths about self-esteem.
First, people who are described as "full of themselves," or who have "too much self-esteem," are people with low self-esteem who are trying to convince themselves and others of a worth they don't experience. Low self-esteem is the result of negative self-esteem beliefs, such as I'm not good enough, I'm not important, I'm not worthy or deserving, and I'm not capable. People with high self-esteem don't need to convince anyone of their worth; they know they are good enough and important and don't need anyone's approval to experience being okay.
Second, low self-esteem is not limited to the "losers" in life. A survey that makes this point crystal clear reported than many CEOs of billion dollar companies had the fear that "someday I'll be found out and they'll take it all away from me." It is possible to be successful by conventional standards (plenty of money, a good job or your own company, selling your artistic endeavors, achieving whatever you set out to achieve) and still have low self-esteem. In such cases the low self-esteem shows up as a critical "little voice" in your head that criticizes much of what you achieve, as a feeling that you don't deserve your success, or as a fear of rejection, or a need to get other's approval. All of the things that undercut the enjoyment you get from your success are the result of low self-esteem.
The question that is probably occurring to most of you right now is: Why do so many people have negative self-esteem beliefs? Why has almost every one of the 13,000 clients we've talked to had the belief, I'm not good enough?
Almost all of our self-esteem beliefs, positive or negative, are formed in the first six years of life as the result of interactions we have with our primary caretakers, almost always our parents.
And yet most parents love their children and want the best for their children. So what goes wrong?
To begin with, most parents are not aware that children are forming beliefs about themselves based on interactions with their parents that don't usually appear to be at all harmful.
But even when parents are aware of this, they can have a hard time stopping their inappropriate behavior because they are rarely aware of the conflict between what they as parents want and what children are able to understand and do at various ages.
Parents, being adults, generally like quiet; children are not quiet and cannot even understand why anyone would value quiet.
Parents for the most part want their house to be neat; young children don't even understand the concept of "neat."
Parents want to sit down for dinner when it is ready and before it gets cold; children are almost always doing something that is far more important to them and don't want to stop doing it when their parents call them.
In other words, parents usually want their children to do things that they are developmentally incapable of doing. They want their young children to act like little adults, which they cannot possibly do.
The question is not: Do children frequently "disobey" their parents? Children are developmentally incapable of living up to most parents' expectations. The only question is how parents react when their children are not doing what the parents want them to do.
And because few parents go to parenting school and most bring their own beliefs from their childhoods with them, their reactions range from annoyance and frustration to anger and abuse, with every possibility in between.
Do you understand now why so many of us have low self-esteem, which shows up in so many obvious and subtle ways, including worrying about what people think of us, being afraid to take risks, having a little voice in our head that keeps telling us that what we do isn't good enough, and sabotaging our success?
Copyright © 2010 Morty Lefkoe
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Parents expect children to do things that the children are developmentally incapable of. And then the parents get annoyed or angry at the children. And then the children form negative self-esteem beliefs.
The ultimately source of the negative beliefs is the parents' behavior toward the child. But the reason so many parents get upset with their children is that they have unreasonable expectations of them.
Thanks for your comment.
Worrying what people think of us and doing things to get their approval is what I call "survival strategies." (I plan to write a post about that shortly.) We do that AFTER we form negative self-esteem beliefs, such as I'm not good enough and I'm not important. We use survival strategies to try to make ourselves feel good enough and important after we have concluded we aren't. But although they can make us feel better for the moment, they don't really work.
Regards, Morty
People cling to their comfort zones. If "I don't think very much of myself" is the comfort zone people who succeed "I should think much of myself" will either beat up on other people to try to make themselves feel better about their self or do something that will pull them back into their comfort zone "ya see! I told you I wasn't whatever enough" to prove to themselves, and to the world that they are RIGHT about "I'm not very much".
It is important to note that our parents did not DO this TO us. We took on the beliefs for ourselves. Any judgement words such as fault, blames, guilt, etc. have nothing to do with this conversation. Our parents are doing the best they can given the light they have to see - their perspective/beliefs. We are similarly doing the best we can. We adopted our internal beliefs often through a misinterpretation of an event (or statement) given our young brains inability to comprehend context.
Since we adopted our belief systems we have the power to change them. It just takes willingness (intention) and commitment to reach for and adopt newer, better, perspectives (beliefs).
In fact, I developed a process about 25 year ago that does just that: permanently eliminate beliefs. We've helped over 13,000 clients resolve a host of problems in their lives by eliminating the beliefs that caused the problems.
To try it out free and eliminate one of the most common limiting beliefs most of us formed in childhood, go to http://bit.ly/bQHtep.
Thanks, Morty
Thanks for your post, Morty
Regards, Morty
I think people have had negative self-esteem beliefs forever.
Thanks for taking the time to comment.
Regards, Morty
Why doesn;t the government establish those? Institutions meant to teach parents about the nature of kids, rather tha trying to instill in them behaviours counter to every fiber of their being?
Breaking a child's will, and building self esteem are impossible to achieve simultaneously.
I always suspected Donald Trump was a textbook case of low self esteem. Thanks for validating it.
Yes, it would be great if more parents went to "parenting school" and learned about the importance of having their children form positive beliefs.
Thanks for your comments.
Morty
Low self-esteem is the result of having such negative beliefs as I'm not good enough, I'm not important, and I'm not worthy. They come from interactions with parents as a young child. Such statements are never true about us.
For example, we may not be good at certain things, but we are never "not good enough" as a person.
Thanks for taking the time to write.
Morty