RD&T’s contributing writer, Marcus Neo, explores the psychology of true self-esteem.
Life’s Purpose
Self-esteem is also ostensibly tied to one’s purpose. It is the desire to grow in knowledge and skills, in understanding and control. The opposite is stagnant passivity.
On any level of intelligence or ability, one of the characteristics of self-esteem is a man’s eagerness for the new and the challenging, for which he’s allowed to use his abilities to the fullest extent.
In the realm of his work, the primary desire of an individual of self-confidence is to face challenges, to achieve and grow.
The desire to be ‘safe’ is also the man who lacks self-confidence.
Productive achievement is the cause and not the result of healthy self-esteem. People who base their self-esteem on existential achievements don’t really have self-esteem at all.
The lack of self-esteem is often expressed by people who wish to escape consciousness and the ability/need to form rational thought. This is often expressed through sexual pleasure, money for the sake of money, and other common vices in our society. It is the pleasure received from temporarily feeling helpless. This pleasure is different from the man who uses his faculties properly, and of actual values in reality.
Self-esteem is confidence in one’s ability to achieve values, and not the external achievement of it. One is ‘I can’, and the other is ‘I have.’
