Why is high self-esteem so important to success?

The quick answer: You achieve the success you believe you deserve.

We all limit ourselves in dozens of little ways, self-sabotaging whenever we step outside the comfort zone that we live in.

The boundaries of that zone are set by our beliefs about ourselves – who we think we are, what we believe we’re worth, what fits the image we hold about ourselves, and mostly, what we believe we deserve.

Receive more than you think you’re worthy of, and you start behaving in ways that bring you back to that comfortable level where you know who you are again.  That’s why lottery winners usually end up back where they were in 3 years or less.  That’s why 80% or more of start-up businesses fail within the first 3 years.  It’s like a thermostat – if your environment goes above or below that pre-set level we’re happy with, something kicks in to bring it back into line.

Thermostats can be reset, though.

Change what you believe about yourself, start seeing yourself as having more to offer, and you’ll start allowing more good things into your life.  The higher you build your self esteem, the higher that thermostat gets set, and the more you experience success.  By setting it to new, higher levels, you’re not only overcoming that inbuilt resistance that counteracts what’s happening and brings you back down to where you were before, but turning it to your advantage to help you achieve ever higher levels of success..

How do you change those beliefs?  There’s a few tricks I’ve learnt over the years.  Repeating affirmations can help, creating a supportive environment is important too, but the single biggest thing you can do to improve your self esteem is listening for, finding and silencing the critical comments that inner voice keeps feeding you.  When you hear your mind telling you something negative, stop and feed yourself the opposite, positive point of view immediately!  Before too long, it shifts away from putting you down, and as you work your way through all those old destructive beliefs, you replace each of them with positive, self-esteem enhancing ones that create the success you want.