How To Build Self-Esteem

How to build your self-esteem?

What I can tell you is one thing my mom did to build my self-esteem.
I think parenting and leadership have many things in common.
Just to tell the power of “small celebrations”.
I’ll break it down into 4 parts.

1.    So, from 6 to 18 I did many races.
Both mountain running and cross-country skiing races.
Many times I landed on the podium, so I got many trophies.
In the beginning, I kept my trophies in my bedroom.
But after getting 4-5 trophies, I needed to find a place for them.
I had no more space in my little bedroom.
I was probably 7 years old at the time.

2.    In that period, my parents had to buy a new cabinet for our living room.

So, what my mom did was this:
→    She went to a carpenter
→    and asked him to build a cabinet that would have enough space from the top of the cabinet to the ceiling.
Why?
Because she wanted to display all my trophies on top of the cabinet.

I literally remember my mom saying:
→    “We need to put all Matty’s trophies up there”

And by the way, my mom was pretty firm with me during my first 19 years.
She didn’t create any delusions in me.
She was just realistic.

3.    So, the carpenter built the cabinet.
And from that day, my mom displayed all my trophies in the living room.
So it was impossible not to see them.
In short, she recognized my achievements.

But the most interesting thing she did was this:
→    Every time a new guest came home and said “Oh wow, whose trophies’ are those?”
She replied:
→    “Oh, those are Matty’s trophies. He’s a little champion.”

And they started talking about my achievements in front of me.
Again, no delusion — just reality.
So, she didn’t just recognize my achievements.
She recognized them in front of others.

4.    So, why did I tell you this story?

Because if we wanna help people build their self-esteem, we need to:
→    Recognize their achievements
→    Do it in front of other people
→    And do it multiple times
Like my mom did from when I was 7 to probably 15.