From an early age, school, parents, family, our social environment, enhance the standards of success, which are mainly associated with the working professional. For example, how many times have we heard that person X has a successful career, which means more money, rise in the social hierarchy and a high valued “prestige”?

Indeed, people who have achieved their goals in their professional field surely cannot only be described as “lucky.” Certainly they are people who have the talent of communication, self-awareness, self-discipline and most important, they have strong faith in themselves and their talents. Furthermore, they are people who do not give up easily on their goals, rather they are the ones who persist even when everyone else is wondering if it’s still worth trying!

There are many examples in recent history of people who have managed the impossible even when the rejection was their daily routine such as Walt Disney, the Beatles, Steve Jobs and many others. Why do I mention this? Because the common denominator of all these people is that they did not expect initially to be accepted by the wider public. In other words, they didn’t built their careers first, and their self-esteem followed … the contrary happened: Because they had high self-esteem, they were able to create the conditions, in order to become the scene makers of their own success.

How can we actually learn the ways of cultivating and ultimately developing our self-esteem?

1. The main principle is having faith in ourselves and in our ability to remain true to our original goal.

2. Set goals, which reflect only yourselves. Not your parents, your partner or your child. They should reflect YOU!

3. Consider the possibility that there are areas in your life you haven’t discovered yet and that can lead to new options. You may find that you have hidden talents from which you can draw satisfaction.

4. Do what you want, enjoy what you do and the fact that that you can actually do it!

5. Look for activities that encourage you to realize your potential.

6. Motivate yourself by setting clear goals.

7. Take time to develop yourself and do the best you can with whatever you tackle.

8. Learn to postpone an immediate gratification in order to achieve a long term result.

9. Do not put off important things. Do not wait until the last minute in order to take action.

10. Focus on your goal and avoid possible distractions.

11. Educate yourself on the few things that are vital to your goal. In other words, find the essence of what you can contribute and how this connects in achieving your goals.

12. Visualize the desired results.

13. Reward yourself!

The more we apply the above mentioned tips the end result will gradually seem more realistic and as a consequence the feeling of success encourages the feeling of our self-worth, since the conquest of a professional goal – whether it may be obtaining a university degree or a job change or getting a promotion – activates our self – esteem.

A question that comes up at this point is how healthy is it though to connect our self-esteem with our career status?

This is the “trap” we get stuck, if we let our self esteem be directed by our professional achievements. To put it simply: “I am a successful professional, so I feel important …”

So how can we protect our self-esteem regardless of our life circumstances?

In principle, the word “balance” is the solution. By this we mean that all of us as hard as we chase professional fulfillment and successful careers, along every step we take it is good to remember our core values, namely how we decide to live our lives. For example, one woman may be in the eyes of her social circle a successful, dynamic and decisive professional but in reality she is feeling guilty of not devoting enough time to her family…although she takes the credit for her professional achievements concerning her career, in her personal life she still feels incomplete …

The only way of maintaining balance in life is to remember that every professional goal we set, has to be in line with our inner core values system. And by the way, let’s not forget that in success not all people are happy, whereas in happiness all people are successful!