Be an Empowered Freelancer by Improving Self-esteem

One’s personality has great impact on how he can be successful in his work and how he can interact with the people around him. Having self-esteem is a part of one’s personality traits allowing one to be stable and enduring. Self-esteem (also known as self-worth, self-respect and self-value) can be used to define a person’s sense of personal value. It includes how own give value to his own emotions, behaviours, beliefs and even appearance. Self pertains to a person’s value, attitudes and beliefs while esteem refers to the value and worth that one gives oneself. Simply speaking, it is about accepting ourselves for who we are. Esteem is even considered as part of human’s hierarchy of needs by Maslow.

We can see from the above definition that self-esteem if very much important because when you start to give value to yourself, you will become a better person and you will also be able to extend that value to other people. As freelancers, having self-esteem should be given high regard especially that you are working on your own and you do not have bosses. That manifests that you work alone most of the time and you can control your job. Being occupied working alone might make one feel aloof when he goes out from his workspace which is his comfortable zone. But that shouldn’t be the case. No matter what you do and no matter where you are you, you have to always develop and keep your self-esteem. So, if you think you are slowly loosing that, we have here some tips to help you stand up again lift yourselves again:

1. Believe in your own worth.

It is important to believe that you are worthy. This is a way of giving value to yourself. If you recognize your self-worth, you will be able to give yourself time. You can do things that you want to do, learn to say no when you are unable to do it, do things that will make you happy and take care of yourself. Being able to value yourself is the first step to improve self-esteem. If you do not give importance to yourself, you cannot do things that will uplift yourself. Do not just curl and dump yourself in a corner. Stand up and see how important you are. From that, you will be able to go farther.

2. Have good relationships.

People around you matters. Of course, no one can definitely live alone. Having good relationship can help one improve his self-esteem. The feeling of being loved, cared and accepted by others lifts a person’s confidence, giving him social ease. With social ease, one can mingle with people without fear of being rejected. You will surely feel good when you join a crowd and you are warmly welcomed. Start a good relationship with family members, then extend that to friends and other people in your network.

3. Develop your skills.

When you are good on a certain aspect or you have skills and talents that you know you can be proud of, you will be confident in showing that to others. Also, you will have self-esteem knowing that you posses something that you can use in order to succeed. That is why developing skills are important. You can read this Easy Steps to Improve Your Graphic Design Skills to help you improve. Determine your interests and look for ways to sharpen your skills in that certain field. There is always room to improve yourself.

4. Look into your strengths.

You will certainly know where you are good at. Take some time to look into your strengths. Like if you are good in designing logos, that is your strength. Not all people can do what you can do especially if you have your own style and signature in making your designs to set you apart from the other logo designers. This will help you to have self-esteem.

5. Trust in your competence.

You will not be able to go far if you do not trust in your own talents and skills. Your competence will never be taken away from you by anyone. So, believe in yourself that you can achieve something and that you can do things rightly. Trusting in your competence can bring you to greater heights in terms of your design career. You can also deal with clients well since you know that you can deliver a project successfully.

6. Look good physically.

Being a freelancer based at home doesn’t mean that you will skip staying fit and healthy. It also doesn’t mean that you can skip personal hygiene just because you do not face clients all the time. It is still important to take care of yourself. Having good posture and proper hygiene will help improve self-esteem since you know that you can face people anytime you want without fear of being looked down to. Having good posture can automatically help you feel good about yourself. Stand straight, walk with head up, and have eye contact. You will have a good impression to others and you can even act more enthusiastically. Check on How Can You Stay Fit and Healthy as a Designer.

7. Acknowledge that you cannot please everyone.

In this world, people have different tastes and preferences. We have to accept that veracity. Hence, you should not feel down and depressed whenever others are not happy with your output. Accept that fact that you cannot please everyone. If you could do that, you will not worry even if some of your clients will ask you to repeat parts of your design. It won’t make you less of a person if you accept their recommendations. Also, it won’t make you less of a designer if you will do revisions for a project.

8. Shoo away negativities.

Like a kid who is unwilling to listen to loud noise and destructive sound, you should also cover your ears and shield yourself from negative stuff. You can get that from other people’s feedbacks and comments. Do not be affected by that. You have to remain positive. Maintaining a positive outlook in life can help you to have self-esteem that no matter how much negativities surround you, you will remain confident with what you do in life.

9. Reward self for success.

Another good way to improve your self-esteem is to reward yourself when you attain success. You will surely feel good when you hit your goals. But you will feel even better if you will reward yourself. Make it a habit to set rewards for yourself in every task. You will get Advantages of Setting a Reward for Yourself which you will find beneficial for work. Rewarding yourself is giving value to your hard earned accomplishments.

10. Be yourself.

Not but not the least, be yourself. It’s as simple as that. Do not aim to be on someone else’s shoes or wish to be someone else. You have to accept who you are because if you learn to love yourself, others will find it easy to love you too. Acceptance starts from within. If you have self-esteem and you trust yourself, that will be seen on the way you act, talk and deal with people. Others will surely like to befriend someone who has self-esteem. Empower yourself by being yourself.

It’s Your Turn Now

Having self-esteem is indeed important. Without it, one could not reach his goals and dreams in life. You will not be a successful freelancer if you do not have this basic requirement. So, if there are times that you feel down and you tend to lose your self-trust, go back to the things stated above and regain your self-esteem. How about you, what do you do to improve your self-esteem? Would you like to share that to us?