Self Esteem & Motivation

It is difficult to separate motivation from self esteem.

Put simply, a person with good self esteem is generally highly motivated or at least capable of becoming highly motivated. Some writers and psychologists place enhancing self esteem as the key to motivation. A simple but powerful psychological model of self esteem is as follows:

self esteem

Self esteem is enhanced or reduced by four factors:

Relationships	The more relationships one has, the greater is ones sense of self esteem. Having few or no relationships reduces it.
Achievement	The more one has success in achieving something, the greater is ones sense of self esteem. Not achieving - having failures - reduces it.
Independence	The more one feels independent and self sufficient, the greater is ones sense of self esteem. A sense of powerlessness and dependency reduces it.
Job & Skills	Having a valued job and skills tends to enhance ones feeling of self esteem. Having poor or no job and skills tends to reduce it.

If someone is difficult to motivate, use this checklist to see whether you feel that poor self esteem is the cause and whether you can do anything to help them to build it up.