Recently, I have talked about an inferiority complex. Today, I will explain why trying to have higher self-esteem will be ineffective.
How to deal with low self-esteem
Sometimes, we try to have higher self-esteem. Self-esteem is a subjective sense of feeling worth or value for ourselves. When we have low self-esteem, we have many negative thoughts that suffer us, such as “I can accomplish nothing,” “I am a failure,” or “I don’t deserve to live.” Perhaps that is why we sometimes wish for higher self-esteem.
However, it is usually hard to make it, even though there are so many methods. It may work for some people in the short term, but it didn’t work for me or my surroundings in the long term.
Perhaps that is because there is a logical breakdown in the teaching that “high self-esteem brings success.” Today, I will explain why. This logic frees us from sticking to struggling with our minds and allows us to change our environments. That might solve our inferiority complexes.
The breakdown of the logic
The reason for that logical breakdown is simple. It is confused with cause and effect. When we have an inferiority complex, we can say as follows:
- Correct: (Cause) Our nature doesn’t fit the environment. (Effect) That causes failure and low self-esteem.
- Incorrect: (Cause) We have low self-esteem. (Effect) That causes failure.
If we see the cause and effect like the above, we can understand a logical breakdown of it. If low self-esteem prevents us from accomplishing anything, we can do nothing.
We can understand it is wrong because we can make something in another area or another way. Even if we have lower self-esteem, appropriate ways at a proper time and target will allow us to achieve it. Lower self-esteem is not the cause.
Perhaps the investigation of successful people caused this confusion. The researchers compared successful people with others. Then, they found that successful people tend to have higher self-esteem. Perhaps that made them think higher self-esteem brings them success.
However, it is incorrect in many cases. That is the same logic as the one: billionaires spend millions of dollars a month, so if we spend millions a month, we can be billionaires. Of course, it is false, except for a few people for whom it works. “High self-esteem brings success” is the same logic as that. Although it could work for a few people, the reverse is not always true.
We don’t have to try to keep higher self-esteem if it doesn’t work. A suitable environment gives us good self-esteem.
The reason we have low self-esteem
There is a reason for our lower self-esteem. It is beneficial for us, so we have it.
Low self-esteem is a feature of living well. Low self-esteem is one of the ways to protect ourselves from continuous failures. If we keep doing the same thing the same way in the same situation, we will keep failing and be poorer and poorer.
In such a situation, our minds intentionally lower self-esteem. Thanks to that mental system, we can prevent the same failures. That allows us to change our ways. In other words, we can be more creative.
That is a mental feature. Features and causes are different things. We cannot change the feature. Low self-esteem is an effect.
If we understand that low self-esteem is an effect, we can change the cause. The environment that doesn’t suit us causes it. Perhaps this is an effective way to solve our inferiority complex.
Conclusion
That is the logical breakdown in the telling that “high self-esteem brings success.”
We don’t have to raise self-esteem if it doesn’t work. We can change our environment. Perhaps that will work for us.
This logic might free us from sticking to struggling with our minds and our inferiority complexes.
Thank you for reading this article. I hope to see you in the next one.
