Importance Of Self Esteem In Teenagers
“You Are Enough”
&
“Believe in Yourself”
This is what we have heard since childhood. We get these messages from television, movies, books, legends, parents and teachers. They are easy to understand but are really difficult when it comes to their application. It is always said that self-esteem is very important but here comes the question what is self-esteem and why it is important?
Self-esteem is an individual’s evaluation of their own worth. It encompasses beliefs about oneself as well as victory, despair, etc. it is very important part of happiness and success. So, exact meaning of self-esteem is how much you value and appreciate yourself which means you have to appraise yourself for example, you can appraise the way you dress up, your looks, behaviors, beliefs, etc. If one has self-esteem, he/she can achieve great things in life on the other hand having too low self-esteem can make you feel defeated and depressed. Since, teenage is the learning and growing age you should always be energetic and curious because if you are feeling low you won’t be able to learn new things. Although imposing sense of self-esteem and giving too much importance to ourselves can damage relationships. So, extreme levels of self-esteem can damage relationships and one can end up making bad choices. So, ideally you have to balance between the two. Self-esteem is essential without it you won’t be able to excel in whatever you do and you won’t believe that you are capable of success.
Deterioration of self-esteem can be because of your parents, relatives, friends or teachers may have compared you at least once with someone, their intention may not be bad but in this way sometimes you develop this habit of comparing yourself with someone else who has achieved more than you. When you are not able to achieve it you develop inferiority complex and then your focus deviates from your abilities to inabilities. For example, if you are not good at painting like your sibling you’ll start feeling low. This was scenario one, now the scenario two is that as teenager you want to be liked and accepted by everyone. So, you start doing things that are not good and against your principles and to get acceptance from people you make bad decisions for example, to seek attention and increase acceptability you start making unethical decisions which later results in dent in self-esteem. What you don’t realize is that you are doing it under the influence of your peers and not because you want to. scenario three is that you don’t realize that all this is in your head. Maybe, you think that people are letting you down by comparing but that may not be true. This must be all in your head. What I am trying to say is it is self-build and is all in your head. This is how self-esteem issues start. I know you all must have heard that everybody is different but that is very true. You should always try to achieve things in life not because your neighbor, sibling, colleague or friend has achieved it or to outshine someone but because you want to do it for yourself. I know everybody have felt this and it is absolutely fine. Everybody must have been compared to someone and felt that they are not good enough and their dignity must have been damaged. How you can overcome this is by talking to your family or friends whoever you trust and believe me they will agree with you as they must also have gone through this.
Reports show that females face more self-esteem issues than males. According to statistics about 75% of girls with low self-esteem reported engaging in negative activities like cutting, drinking, smoking or disordered eating. Due to low self-esteem about 20% of the teens end up having depression and anxiety.
So, to avoid all these problems what you need to do is to self-evaluate, try to find out what is the cause and ask yourself what is making you feel low and defeated. I am sure you will get the answer. You need to accept yourself as you are to get your dignity back. You need to convert your weaknesses to strengths and accept your flaws. You have to learn to say ‘NO’ to things you don’t like or to things which are wrong. You have to work hard daily and improve yourself. Work on your interests. Find out what makes you feel happy and what you enjoy doing the most. You need to do what scares you doesn’t mean jumping from the building, the point is doing something you have not done before as you were scared of doing that and you need to come out of your comfort zone. One thing that really helps is that you have to feel confident about yourself. Sometimes it is okay not to score 90% and becoming the youngest CEO. These all things will help you in the long run not only to gain your self-esteem back but will also help you grow and your motto should be:
“DO BETTER, BE BETTER”
-Masoom Kotecha
-Third Year BPT
Whatever I have written I am really sure you all must be familiar with it and must have heard somewhere but the thing is it is high time we should start applying all these things in our lives. As writing and reading all this and then forgetting about it is not going to help.
