Showing results by narrator "Nathaniel Branden" in All Categories

How you feel about yourself crucially affects virtually every aspect of your life, especially how high in life you are likely to rise. Who and what you think you are shape all your responses. Self-esteem, therefore, becomes the key to success or failure. It is also the key to understanding yourself and others.

Of all the judgments you make in life, none is as important as the one you make about yourself. The difference between low self-esteem and high self-esteem is the difference between passivity and action, between failure and success. Now, one of America's foremost psychologists and a pioneer in...

When others look at you, what do they see? What would you like them to see? A confident, successful person brimming with ideas and energy? Or a fearful, passive person? Others see you as you see yourself. Your image of yourself is a reflection of your self-esteem, which defines your level of professional success and personal happiness.

"Tell me how a person judges his or her self-esteem", says pioneering psychologist Nathaniel Branden, "and I will tell you how that person operates at work, in love, in sex, in parenting, in every important aspect of existence - and how high he or she is likely to rise. The reputation you have with yourself - your self-esteem - is the single most important factor for a fulfilling life."

Self-esteem is the reputation you get with yourself. You develop this reputation through your actions. Competent, confident and courageous actions enhance self-esteem and build inner strength. Such experience leads to the conviction that you are competent to cope with the challenges of life - and the belief that you deserve happiness and success to be yours. The opposite is also true.