Dear counsellor,

I have come to realise I have low self-esteem and I always think I am not capable of handling certain responsibilities my peers take on. What can I do to improve my self-esteem.

Yours Ben

Building self-esteem takes time

Self-esteem simply means appreciating yourself for who you are, including your strength and weaknesses.

Changing your self-esteem takes time, but you can often reach the highest peak of excellence once you learn to acknowledge the whole lot about yourself and move on. Sit down and write a list of good things about yourself and be thankful for that.

Recognise your accomplishments and struggle to even achieve more. The more you achieve your goals the more you increase your self-esteem. This can be done through taking risks and trying things they wouldn’t ordinarily do.

Keep adjusting your self image to match your current abilities and skills, not those of your past and handle mistakes and failures in a more positive way and don’t criticise yourself for the failure. It can paralyse you from taking action because you become so afraid of not living up to some standard because you do not get the results you want. This will make your self-esteem sink. Remember failure comes with its own success and lessons to learn. This will keep you away from falling into a pit of despair and will help you to be more constructive after the first initial pain of a failure starts to dissipate.

Build a wide social network and get actively involved in the social, academic, religious and economic adventures around your network to discover your potentials and put them to good use. Stop feeling sorry for what has gone wrong and focus on the opportunities and gratitude for what you actually have. Also try to read a huge amount of book for there is a lot of written materials that help to hasten self esteem. You are uniquely great so you need to rise up and discover yourself.

YOUR DEBATE

Jacky Kayitesi, university student

In my opinion, you need to start thinking about yourself as a winner not a loser. To improve your self-esteem you need to first feel good about yourself. Start setting goals to be more positive about yourself and this will put you on the path to greater self-confidence. Take one step at a time, you will eventually get there.

Remy Mugabo, Sales person

Simply change the way you look at your abilities and achievements,. Besides, it’s not wise to compare yourself with those around you; remember we all have our strengths and weaknesses, but believing in oneself that you’re capable is the key to success. It empowers you to be more hardworking, ambitious, and responsible in your daily routines. In other words open your mind to new ideas and this in return increases one’s achievements.

Tito Gakire, university student

Focus on the things you can do better, find a hobby or an activity that makes you feel better physically and mentally. It’s through doing what is in your abilities that you will gain confidence in yourself,. Change your attitude about you or what you can manage, thus improving your self-esteem. Start small and eventually graduate to more hard tasks and this will boost your self-worth.

Shadia Mutoni, sales person

School counsellors or teachers can help you get on top of your self-esteem problem. Consider sharing your worries with them and I believe with their expertise, they will help you go through a series of self-esteem lessons to help you identify and deal with the root cause of your self-esteem problems.

By Dennis Agaba