Sometimes it’s okay to have a low self-esteem - Victoria Abidoye

A healthy self-esteem is a feeling of having respect for yourself and your abilities. It is a feeling of having a sense of worth and placing value on yourself. Self-esteem is a confidence and satisfaction with oneself.

Self-esteem is seen in two regards, the low and high self-esteem. Low selfesteem is not having respect in yourself and your ability, not believing in yourself etc. High self-esteem on the other hand is the opposite of the low. 

While high self-esteem has been preached to be a must have, and low something to do away with, I’m here to tell you that sometimes it’s okay to have a low self-esteem too as long as it propels you to become a better person. 

“In my secondary school, there was this very brilliant classmate of mine, he told us he doesn't to read at home, however even at school he plays a lot, like a whole lot, but whenever we write test, he finishes first and has if not the highest score, second to the highest. This particular day we had an exam and despite warnings from different teachers that he shouldn’t always be quick to submit etc,  due to overconfidence, my guy thinking he knew everything and had it all figured out failed woefully and had to repeat a whole section.”

This tells a whole lot. Many times with high self-esteem comes over confidence, pride and a kind of know it all attitude. I’m not ruling out totally the need for high esteem, I’m merely attesting that sometimes, a healthy self-esteem keeps us on our toes, wants us to attain perfection that we seem to lack and at the same time gives us the ability to be modest.

It is true that low self-esteem has its negative side, but then, doesn’t high self-esteem as well? The important thing is finding a balance between both.

There is a difference between an over bloated self esteem which leads to wrong performance. Low self esteem should be improved upon and we should all aim for a healthy self esteem.