What a perfect day to continue our discussion of the relationship between our results and our self-esteem.
Imagine if you were running for any office – how that must feel – and how it would feel to win and how it would feel to lose. It would probably be very tempting to allow either of those external results to affect your self-esteem. It would have to feel like a referendum on your worth to some degree; right?
The approval of others is a huge reason that we humans are often drive to – and even addicted to – producing “socially-acceptable” results. By definition, much of the approval of others derives from the results that demonstrate the competency with life issues that we discussed yesterday. That would be mostly “things” or “actions” that can be seen or experienced by others. Of course, each individual is the only person who can understand what it feels like to be her or him – and, thus, what each person deems as the sources of individual happiness.
How much of your desire to produce results is impacted by the opinion – and the approval or disapproval – of others? Is this something that you’d like to change in either direction? If so, why or why not?