Book Review: Self Esteem

"Self-esteem is essential for psychological survival." 

- Fanning, P.  McKay, M. (2000). Self Esteem (3rd ed.). New HarbingerPublications, Inc. Oakland, CA.

OH boy, do I love this little paperback wonder.  Can you tell?  It has served me well! And helped me take stuff (mistakes, worries, criticism) a lot less personal and allowed me to support myself in my goals.  This book covers everything from looking at how you formed your values to how to instill self-esteem into your kiddos.

I wanted to include it on the GO Training blog because it may be helpful to you if you are having a hard time starting new habits (clean diet, exercise) and may be helpful in providing yourself with positive inner dialogue.  Or seeing what thought patters are settings roadblocks between you and what you want to happen in life.

"Self Esteem" caught my eye a long time ago, as I had an extreme desire to lose weight but continued to practice overeating.  I am a seasoned life long athlete, outdoorsy pants, and now a physical therapist, and a personal trainer.  Getting enough exercise was usually not the problem.  I am STILL working on taming my inner critic and bolstering my self esteem.  All the scientific knowledge on earth will not build that house, it requires learning about you.

As a graduate of the Medical Weight Loss Center, and a Weight Watchers 5-peater, I have been dealing with overeating and being overweight my whole life!  I am currently maintaining a 30 pound weight loss with 20 pounds to go.  Taking in a nephew, moving to Portland and settling in, and starting a business (for tackling fitness and weight loss) last year threw enough loops that my self awareness and accountability waned and my weight loss stalled!  Kinda ironic, I know.

In recognizing my off path state, I reached for my old friend, Self Esteem. The problem was and sometimes is my perception of self and others really needed to be examined to achieve lasting weight loss.  However, weight loss doesn't have to be your goal or challenge.  Overeating is a coping mechanism I used and sometimes still use when I am not dealing with other stuff so well.  

This book is a good solid challenge and can be so revealing to why you think and do things that just are not pushing you towards your goal.  And my goal is to nail that last 20 pounds.

This key is really about caring for yourself and learning about why you may not be doing a good job looking after your needs.  It guides you through many different aspects of self reflection.  To really utilize everything this book has to offer, perform the mini-assignments in each chapter!  There is also a companion workbook, if you need a little more structure.

The beginning chapters challenge you to listen to your inner voice, and then the self assessment blossoms from there.  It took me a long time to even want to dig and try some of these inner awareness exercises.  It's uncomfortable.  But harnessing the control on what thoughts I allow to travel down the neural pathways in my brain has been a ticket to Transformation Nation!  It teaches  a really kind way to see how your thoughts serve your strengths and weaknesses.

As with any venture or coaching in life, not every tidbit worked for me, but many techniques did.

Some of my favorite chapters! This is number 4 where you work on an accurate non-perjorative self description. Oh!  And number 8 is all about dealing with mistakes!  So many useful, concrete ways to reframe and address chronic and one time mistakes.  I even busted this one out when my nephew totalled my car. I think reading it for himself and hearing my words of "It's ok to make a mistake." helped him start to let go of his guilt about the situation.  I love goals and planning, and this is covered in Chapter 11.  And if you have kids, Chapter 16 is all about helping your child's self esteem.  Even though I do not have kids or plan on having totters (reserving right to reverse decision), it helps me in my interactions with young ones.  I tend to be an overpraiser, with kids and adults!  But that's not really the best support for kids either.  Turns out overpraising is uncomfy! Who knew!  And I want to be a good influence on my friends, grown and growing, and an accurate mirror for my clients.

Grab this guy from the library or buy it for your very own if your interested in a little look inside.

Cheers to being your own biggest fan GO Trainers!  Capture your Best Self!

Look how much fun self esteeming is!

Here's a link to it on Amazon, in no way supporting Amazon over any other book seller but let's you get an idea on price and there is background info on the authors!