6 Toxic Habits That Sabotage Your Self Esteem

6 Toxic Habits That Sabotage Your Self Esteem

Lack of self-esteem can cause serious harm to our life. Therefore, you must have a proactive approach to self-esteem and make sure that you are creating habits that improve self-esteem, not destroy it.

We often overlook the role our habits play in our lives. Whereas in reality, our habits greatly influence our emotions, thoughts, behavior, development, and even our self-esteem! Yes, our habits clearly reflect our self-esteem! In fact, some habits have been identified as habits of people with low self-esteem.

It's important to let go of any habits that could harm your self-esteem, because what we do daily and how we think can play a role in how we feel about ourselves. Taking the time to develop healthy behaviors and productive ways of thinking can have a huge impact on our self-esteem.

Whatever caused your low self-esteem in the past, it’s your present habits that are maintaining it.To feel the best about yourself and build up your self-worth, try to avoid these 6 toxic habits that could sabotage your self-esteem.

Toxic Habits That Lead To Low Self-esteem

1. Perfectionism:

Perfectionism almost always leaves you with a feeling of dissatisfaction and failure.When you strive for perfection, you always beat yourself up for not trying hard enough, always pushing your limits further.
As a result, you end up never being proud of yourself and you always feel like you have failed.

Perfectionists tend to be very self-critical and unhappy and suffer from low self-esteem. They can also be lonely or isolated as their critical nature and rigidity can push others away as well. This can lead to lower self-esteem.According to Carolyn Gregoire in an article for the Huffington Post, perfectionism is highly associated with anxiety and depression.

Research has associated an inability to show imperfection to others (and even, sometimes, an inability to admit fault) with depression and anxiety. Holding yourself to unattainable standards at work puts you on the emotional hamster wheel of keeping up perfect appearances — an impossible task that only makes you miserable.Perfectionism is a self-fulfilling prophecy of low self-esteem

2.Comparison:

Upward and Downward Comparisons Influence Our Self-Esteem. ... When we are able to compare ourselves favorably with others, we feel good about ourselves, but when the outcome of comparison suggests that others are better or better off than we are, then our self-esteem is likely to suffer.

Tying our self-worth to other people is beyond damaging. When you compare yourself to others, you focused on their best qualities instead of yours. Eventually, you will destroy your self-worth by wanting to be as good as they are, never realizing that we all have our special features. 

Studies show that comparing our status, recognition, or physical appearance to that of others (in this case, coworkers) sets us up for depression. “The activity of comparing one’s self with others is a major trigger for a plummet in self esteem,” explains Dr. Jane Bolton, PsyD of Psychology Today. Instead of worrying about coworkers’ behavior, accolades, or looks, try to focus on doing your own work to the best of your ability. You’ll likely experience a twofold benefit: better performance and a mental un-burdening from the feeling you don’t measure up.

3. Not setting boundaries:

Saying yes to everything and trying to please people all the time kills your self-esteem because it prevents you from asserting yourself. Saying yes to everything and everyone. Of course, this tremendously lowering our self-worth because when we give people the power of choice, we lose ours. Setting boundaries shows people how we want to be treated and what we accept and don’t accept.

When you try to please everyone all the time, you basically don’t assert yourself.

• You don’t fully accept your choices.
• You don’t fully live with what you really want.
• In other words, you don’t dare to be yourself.

Poor boundaries and low self-esteem frequently go hand-in-hand.You don’t dare to stand for who you truly are, for what you truly want. The more you practice establishing well-defined boundaries, the more people will treat you as a worthy, self-respecting individual, and the stronger your self-esteem will become, all to the long-term benefit of yourself and others. The stronger the self-esteem, the stronger the boundaries you can implement

4. Judging yourself for how you feel:

Self-esteem is your opinion of yourself. People with healthy self-esteem like themselves and value their achievements. While everyone lacks confidence occasionally, people with low self-esteem feel unhappy or unsatisfied with themselves most of the time.

Many people fear being judged negatively by others, however, they ignore negative judgment from themselves. Negative self-judgment is emotionally damaging and leads to all sorts of problems. In addition to damaging your self-esteem, it can be linked to anxiety or depression. It may prevent you from doing the things you want to, and it can isolate you from people. However, you can live a more fulfilling life and increase your self-esteem when you stop judging yourself negatively.

Related Article: 7 Ways To Improve Your Emotional Intelligence

5. Procrastinating:

When faced esteem skews the skill needed to complete  the task is downplayed and simultaneously the difficulty level of the task is exaggerated .

this lead to realization, albeit a false one that the task would be impossible to complete successful 

Procrastinating can truly hurt your self-esteem, especially when it has become a habit.When you procrastinate, you feel overwhelmed. You feel like you’re losing control over time, and over your life.It makes you feel like you’re lagging behind.

Procrastinating weakens your self-esteem because it encompasses true self-esteem killers:

• A sense of failure
• A sense of unfulfillment
• Questioning your abilities to get things done
• Self-blaming
• Feeling insecure
• Every time I miss a deadline, I really feel like I failed

6. Putting Others’ Needs Before Your Own:

When we fill our time with responsibilities and constantly prioritize the needs of others over our own, we can drain ourselves of energy and desire.We may sacrifice our own interests altogether or stop enjoying personal connections that make us feel like ourselves. In doing so, we give up aspects of ourselves, but the people close to us also miss out on really knowing us.

If we don’t practice self-care and find healthy ways to meet our needs as individuals, we tend to have less energy, complain more, drag our feet, feel more resentment, and criticize ourselves and others, all of which can be draining to all the people we are seeking to benefit by setting aside our own wants and needs

Self sacrificers are often highly emphatic and caring individuals. However, putting others before yourself leads to your own needs and wants not being fulfilled. It is important that you set your boundaries to ensure your physical and mental health. Putting Others First Is Healthy If You Do It the Right . But Unmitigated communion is predictive of lower self-esteem

Positive Habits To Boost Your Self-esteem:

How to be more confident & how to build your self esteem :

1- Daily Positive Affirmation:"Write a daily, morning affirmation, "Start your day of by affirming your strengths. Remember, self-esteem is driven by how we think."

2-Learn something new every day: Our brains are really good at learning new stuff and the more new stuff you learn, the better you get at learning it and the more likely you find things you can be passionate about.

3-Volunteer and give back: one thing a week to help someone else without expecting anything in return.

4-Treat Yourself Well.Nobody is perfect. We all have issues and we all have flaws. Learn to accept your ‘flaws’ or imperfections and love them, because they are what make you unique. So, work it honey!

5-TAKE CARE OF YOURSELF:Eating well and exercising boosts endorphins, the body’s natural opiates, which make you feel good on the inside and stimulates a more positive mood.

6-SET GOALS:Take the time every day to think about what you’d like to achieve. Then set yourself realistic goals for each day and keep track of your progress by writing down all your accomplishments.