If you are serious in wanting to improve your self-esteem there are daily positive action steps you can use. The most important, and often hardest, step to take is to decide to take time to care more about yourself, to love yourself more, and to be kinder to yourself.

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When you take this step you will truly begin your journey of growth and development. Are you ready to start? Of the highest importance is to first understand your personal values. These values are fundamentally important, and define you as an individual. These values make you, you!

The next, harder, steps are to ensure you live in harmony with these values. When you live in harmony with your core values you can build your esteem.

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Daily Positive Actions To Improve Your Self-Esteem.

To grow as a person and improve your self-esteem you need to take positive action every day. Simple things that remind you how amazing you are and build your sense of self worth and inner confidence.

Positive Action 1 – Take Care of Your Body and Mind.

For people who suffer from low self-esteem it is often hard to read posts like this. Every article and piece of guidance telling them that they must learn to love themselves. Most of you already know that, and you know that loving who you are as an individual is important. But, for those with low self-esteem knowing it, and actually being able to do it, are two different things. It is much harder to put into practice!

So if you suffer from low self esteem, or find it difficult to really love yourself, rather than struggle with concepts let’s just start. When you begin you will start by implementing some simple and easy self love actions. These steps will signal clearly to your body, mind and spirit that you truly love and care about yourself!

It is all about starting to believe the good about yourself and avoid any negative thinking. Start identifying your positive characteristics, this changes your internal beliefs and will therefore improve your outlook.

Start Treating Your Physical Body With Respect And Care.

The first step is to treat your physical body with the respect and care it deserves. Looking after your physical body will pay dividends. It will ensure you are physically healthy and able to adopt a healthy mindset for change. When you eat healthily, exercise and sleep well you send a conscious signal to your subconscious, and the outside world, that you are important and that you love yourself enough to take good care of yourself!

Eat only nutritious and healthy food. Good whole food that provides your body with all the vitamins and minerals it needs.
Ensure you get enough sleep.
Get regular exercise, for at least 30 mins a day.
Make time to plan leisure activities that you enjoy and spend time with people that are important to you. Participating in activities you enjoy and spending time with loved ones helps you care for your mind as well as your body. It signals to your subconscious that your needs and enjoyment features highly in your decision making.

Positive Action 2 – Ignore Critical Voice And Get to Know Yourself.

This may sound odd. But the reality is many of us don’t really know ourselves that well. We often live our lives doing the things society tells us is normal, proper and right. Or we make choices based on what we believe will make others happy. We then convince ourselves that these choices are our own. And we end up creating a persona to suit the needs of others.

The problem is that we know that we are not being true to ourselves. If you live your life doing things that are not natural or true to you then you do not make anyone happy. You don’t live your life for you. When you live a life that doesn’t match with your dreams, goals, ambitions, thoughts and feelings it is impossible to make yourself or anyone else happy!

You end up in a constant loop. The more you do things to please others, the less we like ourselves.

You can only improve your self esteem when you truly understand who you are. You need to discover what you stand for, what you aim for, what you like, what you dislike and what makes you happy.

To start this journey the initial step is to pay attention to your intuitive voice.

You can pay attention to your intuitive inner voice by starting a journal. Focus on exploring your feelings about activities, about events etc. Really pay attention to what your inner self is communicating. When you participate in an activity, or you are invited to do something, take a moment and pause. Focus your thoughts on how you feel. Is this is correct for you. Rely and trust your inner voice to guide you.

Make sure you journal at least once a day, but you can do it as often as you feel you need to! Use your journal to explore those moments when you wish you were doing something else. This will soon build up a very clear picture of who you are and what you enjoy.

There are obviously times in life you have to do things you don’t enjoy. It may be your current job, but you know you must work to feed yourself and family. Make a note as it is still helpful to know. It helps you build your self-awareness and sends a message that maybe you should look for a career move into something more meaningful.

If you would like to follow a more structured approach you are able to download a 44 page workbook with guided improve your self-esteem activities. You can download it for free below.

Positive Action 3 – Active Monitoring of Your Core Values.

When we are unclear about our core values, those fundamental principles that guide our lives, we can feel disempowered, directionless and even totally powerless. Taking the time needed to regain clarity about your core values and beliefs will help you to make choices that are correct for you and our life. Only then are you able to feel good about who you are.

When you do something because others expect it, or you think it is expected, you act against your core values. This harms the way you see yourself. Active monitoring is a way to ensure you are true to your values. When taking a decision ask yourself, is this what I want? Am I being true to myself?

In the same way when you truly believe in something but then act in a way that is different, it harms you and your belief in you.

Use your journal to define your core beliefs. Start by asking yourself the question “What values and actions do I really believe in? If nothing intuitively comes to you and you can’t list your beliefs start making time to pause and reflect when you are asked to do certain things by others. The times that your core values will be most easily identified are when the extremes of life are present. These are extreme happiness or joy and times of extreme anger and conflict.

When you are truly happy, you know it, and you will be most aligned with your inner core values – note them down. Or note down what it was that was happening that made you feel so intrinsically good. Likewise if you are in some form of conflict, or a conflict is happening around you try to identify what it is that makes you angry, uncomfortable or stressed.

These emotions are usually felt because something is making you act against your core values and your emotions are alerting you. Times of crisis and conflict, times of true joy, are when your core values are most heightened. Pay attention. Note down your thoughts, your inner feelings and how you believe you should act. Very soon you will have no doubt as to your core values. Living life in alignment to your values is the most impactful step you can take to improve your self esteem.

Positive Action 4 – Improve Your Self-Esteem With A Positive Step Approach

So, you have probably heard the old story… How Do You Eat An Elephant? The answer being… “One bite at a Time!”

The same truth is true for when making changes in our life. People think of self-esteem as a fixed point. But it’s not. You can develop better esteem by putting in pace a step system. One bite at a time!

Don’t try to do everything at once! That can be overwhelming. And when we become overwhelmed we tend to view life in a more negative way and go back to our old habits.

eat the elephant - improve your self esteem

So whatever you decide you want to change, maybe it’s getting up a little earlier, or eating healthy food, or even writing in your journal everyday, start with one positive action step. Start with the things that help you feel confident about success and then move on to the more challenging. What is the one thing that you know you can do and stick with it every day for a month. Start with a small and manageable step. After a month it is now part of you and your life.

When you see and feel the difference this positive action step has made, you will then intrinsically know that you can make positive changes in your life. When you experience success it gives you confidence. This is hugely important because it boosts self-esteem so you can feel more confident when taking the next step. You also develop the inner confidence and improve your self-esteem so you are able to tackle any bigger or trickier areas.

Positive Action 5 – Improve Your Self-Esteem by Smiling! Simple but True!

Forget the old saying “Smile and the world smiles with you”. The world will smile with you when your smile is a reflection of yourself! It is a recognized fact, that when we frown or look stony faced, we are also unconsciously sending a signal to our brain that we are unhappy.

This was shown very clearly when psychologists at the University of Cardiff in Wales found that a group of people whose ability to frown was compromised by cosmetic Botox injections were happier, on average, than people who could frown. Our brain then does what it is signaled to do.

So it makes total sense that smiling sends the same kinds of signal to our brain. A more helpful signal, one of happiness, which helps elevate our mood and lower our stress. Even if we don’t feel happy, just the simple act of making yourself smile can actually change the way we feel and improve our outlook. Others are then affected by our smile and see us more positively too.

Most good self-help books say the way others see us shouldn’t be a measure for how we feel about ourselves, and this is true, but the reality is that for most of us it does matter how others see us and it does impact upon us. When others have positive views of us it boosts our self view. So while we should not live our life to please others and gain their approval, we should be able to feel good when others notice and see us as the positive and loving people that we are!

Positive Action 6 – Improving Self-Esteem Starts With Presenting Yourself.

In a very similar way that smiling helps to improve your self-esteem, the way you dress and present yourself to the world can have a similar effect. When we wear clothes, even if it is a single item, that makes us feel good, we stand straighter and convey a sense of pride. This projects a positive image to the world.

So positive action step 6 is to choose clothes or styles that make you feel good, that showcase your individual personality and, most importantly, make you confident.

Positive Action 7 – Self Kindness, surprisingly tough But Let Go and Forgive!

If you really want to improve your self-esteem then you need to be compassionate with yourself. Punishing yourself for the mistakes you have made or the flaws you see in your life is going to halt all progress. Everyone makes mistakes. Everyone has regrets. Everyone has moments they look back on and wish they had done things differently.

The reality is we can’t live looking back. We have to look to the future, face forward and brave! When we hold on to anger or upset and punish ourselves for mistakes made in the past we are not able to experience the future. We must let go of the past.

This positive action step is to identify what it is you are holding onto. Take some time to reflect and be totally honest with yourself. Use your journal and write down what comes to mind. Then make a commitment to start afresh. Forgive yourself for all your past transgressions, mistakes and regrets. Sometimes people find it helps to write a letter to themselves where they express their forgiveness.

However you decide to forgive yourself is not important, what is important is that you do it. An easy and effective way do do this is as follows. Every morning as you rise, and every evening before you sleep look at yourself in the mirror, remind yourself you have moved on from the past and tell yourself that you are forgiven and loved.

Positive Action 8 – Be More Mindful.

In the positive action steps to improve your self-esteem you are asked to pay attention to your intuitive inner voice. Sometimes however, that inner voice isn’t the calm and reassuring voice of reason that we hope for. So what do we do we do when our inner voice is a harsh self critic or its opinion seems to be overly critical or negative?

Action Step 8 is to become the voice of reason. When you catch yourself having negative thoughts, or when you hear your inner dialogue turning negative start to be mindful of the words it uses and use mindfulness techniques. Is there a pattern? Does it occur at similar times? What starts the inner critic?

Becoming aware of patterns that lead to your inner critic is crucial. And always be mindful that to improve your self-esteem you are going to need to silence this negative self, once and for all. Set yourself a goal that the next time you hear this negative inner dialogue, you are going to fight back.

Remind your inner voice that the conscious you, the one in the room, is not accepting any negativity. Tell the inner voice that you are aware that all negative or critical dialogue is simply our subconscious attempt to fall back into habit, or old routine. Once you have done this, remind yourself that you no longer accept negativity, that it washes off and leaves no trace.

Tell yourself that you are valued, you are worthy and you are not open to any negative feelings or critical talk. Put on your best smile and remind yourself how fabulous you are! Mindfulness helps to improve your self-esteem and allows you to move on from the past.

Positive Action 9 – Positive Thinking with A Growth Mindset

Once you begin your journey to improve your self-esteem you soon see that every obstacle you come across and every setback in your life is actually an opportunity to grow, to learn more and to become a better person. What once would have had you blaming yourself, or making you feel worthless you now view as another chance to learn and improve.

So Action Point number 9 is to adopt a growth mindset. A growth mindset is possible when we have silenced the inner critic. We are able to view any failure and times of challenge for what they are. They are learning experiences and not mistakes. This action step is crucial for developing a truly self compassionate attitude. When we are able to find the lesson or recognize the guidance that stems from a mistake, we are able to grow stronger.

Positive Action 10 – Challenge excitement, cultivating it can be surprisingly Easy!

Those people that have high self esteem are often easily spotted, because they are not afraid to take risks. When we have confidence in ourselves, we don’t worry so much. We don’t think about failing or about what other people might think.

So action point 10 is to do 1 small thing that scares you every day. It doesn’t need to be huge like jumping from a plane. Just do something that you normally wouldn’t, something that would normally make you tense or nervous. Starting with these little things, talking to stranger on the bus, or to a new person at work, can help you develop inner confidence.

Learning to take smaller risks in everyday situations, where the stakes are low, can give you the confidence you need to take more considerable risks later that can help you achieve your goals.

Improve Your Self-Esteem Final Thoughts

There are many more things you can do on a daily basis to improve your self-esteem. Exercising, mindfulness breathing techniques, writing in a journal, connecting with friends and loved ones, setting goals for yourself, and improving your knowledge in a specific area are just a few more.

Anything you can do to nurture yourself, respond to your needs, and value who you are can help you improve your self-esteem and become the more confident person you want to be.