Time for a 2025 Progress Check

We are well into 2025 and now is a great time to re-evaluate your financial situation. No matter what goal you decided to accomplish in 2025, there is a secret ingredient needed to achieve virtually any resolution you might imagine.

Your ability to achieve goals like getting promoted at work, earning more money, making better financial decisions, getting out of debt, increasing your physical fitness, and even increasing your happiness are all closely tied to your self-esteem. Believe it or not, a library full of studies points to self-esteem as the hidden link to life success and satisfaction.

Poor Self-Esteem Has Been Scientifically Linked to:

• Under-earning (earning below your ability or having lower pay than your peers)

• Poor financial decisions

• Overspending

• Avoiding your finances (you don’t believe you have the ability to control your money)

• Impulsive spending

• A lack of resilience

• Poor job performance

• A troubled marriage (both who we choose and how we interact with them)

• Alcohol and drug addiction

• Anxiety

• Depression

• Poor physical health

Poor self-esteem is typically found in people who had a challenging childhood or were somehow taught to have a poor self-concept by their caregivers. As a result, their subconscious does not believe they are worthy of good things in life. Even if their conscious mind knows this is ridiculous, a poor self-view still remains embedded in their subconscious.

What Do You Deserve in Life?

Your answer to this question controls huge aspects of your life. Self-esteem controls our belief that we either can or cannot accomplish a new goal (called self-efficacy).  If we believe we cannot succeed, we will not be motivated to either start or work on the new goal.

Steps You Can Take to Improve Your Self-Esteem:

The following are 8 proven steps to help you improve your inner self-view.

• Small Goals & Tasks: Studies show that accomplishing even a few small goals can increase both your confidence and your self-esteem.

• Self-Talk: Develop a mantra you say to yourself several times a day. Repeat a phrase like, “I can do this!”

• Identify Your Strengths: We all have strengths and weaknesses. Make a list of your strengths.

• Fighting Depression: The level of depression varies. If you have severe depression, get professional help ASAP! The suicide and crisis hotline number is 988. If it is a mild case of depression, listening to upbeat music, exercise, and walks in nature are proven mood lifters.

• Gratitude: Write a list of the things you are grateful for. Gratitude fights both depression and poor self-esteem issues.

• Helping Others: This is my absolute favorite activity on this list! Helping other people reach their goals, through the magic of our brains, improves both our self-esteem and our confidence.

• Learn New Skills: New skills make you better in every way. They also increase your earning ability and confidence.

• Challenge Self-Beliefs: Thoughts like “Things always go wrong for me,” and “I always have the worst luck,” are not true. Challenge those beliefs when they pop into your head.

The Ultimate Goal:

Positive self-esteem is the key to success in your personal and professional life. It forms the base for all other accomplishments because it controls your belief that you are worthy and have the ability to accomplish your goals and take control of your life.

To learn more about the links between self-esteem and action steps for a more confident and prosperous life, read From Money Disaster to Prosperity or Escape Debt Prison: The Tools You Need to Escape Crippling Debt.

~ Larry & Lisa Faulkner