What Is Self Esteem?
Why Good Thinking Is Good

What is self esteem and why is it so important for people to understand the importance of positive self-talk? Chances are that most Americans are in the dark about the issue.

Perhaps they can write a paragraph or two on the benefits of thinking positive, but a healthy self esteem is clearly not as simple as that – or we'd all be supremely confident and optimistic about our various paths in life.

Americans, as a whole, are battling self esteem issues in record numbers. If you're skeptical of this, just look at the rates of eating disorders, depression, suicide, and all-around unhappiness with life.

It seems these days that emotional problems consistently plague us and that is because we don't really know what a healthy self esteem looks like.

So what is self esteem, you ask? The media really misleads us. According to music videos, magazines, television shows, and movies, self esteem looks like a beautiful, thin woman or an extremely lean man saving the world, etc.

In other words, we have been trained to idolize beauty and power and wealth.

This is what we deem worthy qualities that make us valuable individuals in society. So the media's answer to “what is self esteem?” is really what throws us off kilter.

If we weren't so constantly pressured by images of what advertising companies and Hollywood think we should look and dress like, we might be better prepared to answer the question of “what is self esteem?”

Dr. Orison Swett Marden, the founder of the American success movement in the early 1900's, was the first “self-help guru.” He believed that the keys to a good self esteem lied within each individual.

Self esteem is when you fully believe that you are capable of greatness, no matter your financial limitations or lack of natural ability. That is self esteem.

So what is self esteem, according to Dr. Marden? Well, it begins and ends with You and the way you allow yourself to speak to your heart and mind.

Dr. Marden's classic books, like “Pushing To The Front” and “Choosing a Career,” help readers grab on to their unique strengths and get the absolute maximum productivity out of them. So join the many people who have changed their lives as a result of learning from America's first self-help author.

If you want to hear more of Dr. Marden's inspiring message, listen to five of his greatest books online with the Leadership Series For Successful Living right now!

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