Improving Your Self-Concept Through Psychological Strategies
Your self-concept is the defining factor in how you feel about yourself. It comes from your core philosophies that defined you over the years. From your upbringing to your environment, culture, and experiences, your self-concept is a little reminder of every step you took on the way to become you.
However, sometimes our concept of ourselves changes. Whether for the better or worse, it sometimes causes stress in our lives.
For those who are not prepared for this change in self-concept, it can be a difficult transition. That is why we have devised some psychological strategies to help you adjust your self-concept.
Psychological Strategies for improving your self-concept
- Self-Esteem Inventory-The first thing you can do to improve your self-concept is take an inventory of how you feel about yourself in various areas of your life.
This is a test you take only for yourself, so be honest with yourself when you take the inventory. No one else from you will know the results, and only you can benefit from being honest with yourself.
- Unrealistic optimism- Let’s say you want to remember your GPA from high school. Most people would estimate that their GPA is a bit higher than the real GPA they received.
That is why often when students get a grade they disagree with they tend to become irritated. Based on their self-concept, they believed their grade was higher.
It is why “A†students bemoan a B, but “C†students are ecstatic over a B. If the “C†students had the same attitude about school that their counterparts did, they probably would have the same feelings.
It is why good students tend to look at research that talks about how being a good student leads to a better career path later in life.
Conversely, bad students point to all the examples of college dropouts (Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, etc.) who went on to be ridiculously successful.
- Stop comparing yourself to others- Another way to improve your self-worth is to stop comparing yourself to others.
Scientists have proved that comparing yourself to others can be threatening to your emotional health.
That is because when we compare ourselves to others we often become envious of what they have and we do not. The more we compare ourselves to them, the more we create a vicious cycle of negative feelings.
This in turn creates envy and a feeling of lacking. You then start to devalue your own self-worth.
Instead of comparing yourself to others, be proud of what you have accomplished. It is okay to want more, but do not forget what you have done on the way already.
If you are having trouble doing this, then record your wins on a daily basis. Every night before you go to sleep, write down in a journal what your victories for the day were.
At the end of the year, you will be shocked at how many small victories you had.
Be willing to change– Nothing stays the same. It does not matter how much you wish it to, everything around you changes.
For example, as much as some people want to remember a quieter time before the advent of computers, they are not going away. Ignoring them is not the way to deal with this.
Instead, if you want to feel better about yourself you need to change. To do this, you need to grow as a person. Those who do not grow, shrink.
It is only by growing, however, we can expand our own self-concept of ourselves.
Experiment– One way to grow is to experiment with different things. Take a class, volunteer, travel, or find something that is out of your comfort zone.
You do not have to dive in deep, but just by experimenting or trying something new you have the ability to feel better about yourself.
Final Thoughts
We are the result of our own self-concept. How we see ourselves is the result of what we have done in the past, as well as what we feel we are capable of doing in the future.
Therefore, if you want to increase your self-concept start by using the strategies in this article. If you still have any questions, feel free to contact us at 847-824-8366.
