 Self-Esteem Support For Teachers
Self-esteem, motivation, job-success and job-satisfaction go together. This applies to all professionals, including teachers. Remember when your mother asked you, " Who do you think you are?" She probably had no idea how powerful that question really is. We become like the person we
believe ourselves to be. Your self-esteem, motivation, job-success and job-satisfaction are all related to your self-concept, self-image, or the general attitude toward yourself and the opinion of yourself that you hold. In a very real sense your level of self-esteem determines your destiny because humans live up to, or down to, the person they think they are. When your self-esteem is lacking, so is your motivation, because you cannot give your all when you feel incapable of succeeding. Believe that you can do something and you liberate your full potential to go for it. Giving your all with total motivation is fulfilling in and of itself, and it guarantees that you will be the most successful teacher that you can be. Low self-esteem causes you to doubt that you can succeed. This lowers your motivation and, therefore, your level of accomplishment. Nothing holds teachers back from total job satisfaction but a demeaning belief about themselves. When you believe in yourself your high level of self-esteem empowers you to work to your full potential with great gusto. The more you complain about problems with students, supplies, lack of administration’s support, a lack of parent participation, or any other disturbing factor, the lower your self-esteem must fall. This is because you are portraying yourself as inadequate to overcome your challenges. To liberate and harness the full power of your potential you liberate yourself from patterns of thinking and speaking that lower your self-esteem. If you feel lacking in motivation, discouraged about your possibilities, overwhelmed by your challenges, or just plain defeated, begin to pay closer attention to your self-esteem. More specifically, become more aware of you actually think of yourself, so that you can recognize when you are defeating yourself with a self- defeating view of yourself. Through this practice you will see when it is your own mind that is defeating you, not other people or your circumstances. And you will discover that you can drop the opinions of yourself that lower your self-esteem and motivation, to set your higher potential, joy and total motivation free. The real key to protecting oneself from the limitations of low self-esteem is to remember that no one but you is responsible for how you think about and feel about yourself. No one can cause you to lose respect for yourself without your cooperation. A lack of self-esteem saps personal motivation to do your best and to achieve your goals. As long as you see yourself as someone who CAN succeed, you will continue striving
with your full power to succeed. Students may treat you poorly, administrators may seem to see you as second-rate, parents may relate with you as the enemy, but you can use all of that to exercise and thereby to strength your power to maintain belief in yourself and in your worth. Exercises to improve your self-worth and fortify your positive self-concept: 1. Imagine yourself succeeding in all the ways that matter most to you. 2. List 3 of your most valuable strengths, talents or personal / physical qualities. 3. Describe the single most important benefit you want to pass onto your students. 4. Describe about how you would need to see yourself deep, deep, deep down inside to be massively succesful, to feel fully motivated and completely secure. Practice holding THAT vision of yourself. 
Teachers Thrive On Motivation. They are doing the most important work in the world. Schedule a Great, Motivating Team Building presentation
for your facuilty at your school. | 
