Is Low Self Esteem Your Problem or Your Excuse?

By Marty Nemko

Many people blame their problems on low self-esteem. Often that's a face-saving way to avoid the harder-to-accept truth that they have poor intellectual or social ability. Such people don't suffer from low self-esteem--they are accurately portraying themselves. Low self-esteem exists only when a person's self-appraisal is worse than the reality.

What can you do today?
Next time you blame your problems on low self-esteem, ask yourself whether your problem really is low ability. If so, instead of trying to boost your self-esteem, you'll make much more progress by scaling back your expectations or working to improve your skills.