Life satisfaction, achievement and Self Esteem

Running two websites about self esteem and depression I get many emails from visitors who ask me questions relating to happiness, self esteem and general life satisfaction. This article is my attempt to answer some of the most common problems that come up.

If you feel you have purpose in your life and what you do everyday gives you satisfaction then you are lucky. Do you feel something is missing from your life and your potential is unfulfilled? Chances are there are many things which cause you to feel less than satisfied with where you are now.

If you stop to think for a moment I bet you could list many things which make you feel less than satisfied with your life but this is a question of your attitude. Everyone could make such a list and the result would be a negative feeling and unhappiness. If you approach your life looking at it from what is missing or what could be better then you will be unhappy and dissatisfied.

Life satisfaction does not come from money nor material things. It comes from what you do and how you use what you have. It comes from a positive view of what is right in your life now. Of course, things can always be improved but you should try to enjoy your achievements so far. If you always look to solving problems you will never be satisfied until everything is how you want it to be and that will never happen.

Only you can truly answer the question "what will make you satisfied with your life?". However, most people have basic needs which make them satisfied.

How can you become more satisfied and content?

My list above shows that these things have no link to money, they depend on you and your attitudes and feelings about who and what you are. In order to be more satisfied with your life you need to:

As always, these things are easier said than done. If you would like my personal help and guidance I offer Life Coaching.

Reacting to Difficulties and Problems

One thing I realised a long time ago was that when I faced times when my life was not as I wished I would fight. Let me explain. If you are not happy then you may, like I did, fight everything and refuse to accept the reality of your situation. For example, if you don't like where you live you can complain constantly and learn to hate this. This will only make you angry and powerless. Your self esteem will be affected negatively because the more you complain and hate where you live the worse you will feel about yourself and your life. It is far more constructive to stop fighting against everything you don't like because that uses so much of your energy negatively, creates unhappiness and low self esteem.

So what is the alternative to fighting? It is accepting the reality of your life as it is now and being prepared to take a step back in order to think about what you can and cannot change. Accepting everything is not what I am suggesting but there are some things you have to accept and others you don't. Maybe your acceptance is temporary and you should change your attitude so that you can live your life now more happily until you can change things as you want.

Fighting is not positive. It is aggressive and brings with it anger and negative emotions. What you want is to become happier and more satisfied so you are looking for a positive change. Building a better life comes from being positive and taking steps to move closer to what you want. Accepting things as they are now is a first and important step. Accepting that it may take time to get where you want to go is another important thing to do. Accepting who you are is also very important.

Even if your life seems intollerable to you right now, instead of fighting it why not try to work with it and use what you have now? If you cannot change things imediately for the better, why not try to like what you have now? What I am trying to say here is that you CAN be happy and satisfied with your life right now. You shouldn't put off your happiness until you get exactly what you want. If you do that you will never be happy. Live for the journey, not the destination!

Learn from your mistakes and problems and see them as opportunites to improve. Make peace with your life and with who you are, get clear about the changes you'd like to make and then work out how you will move forward. Make sure that you try to see the joy in every day and that even if everything is not perfect, there are always things to be happy about.

I hope that this short article has been helpful to you. I'd love you to share this page with others and comment below about anything that you have read above. Thank you for reading this far and good luck with your life!

Comments (14)

Kunthea Hem commented on 02/20/2013:

"Live for the journey, not the destination! I like this sentence. I just want give more comment that has in my idea is Live for the journey and Heaven for destination."

Ashoora commented on 02/21/2013:

"I not happy at all in my life, i have a good job financially not bad im happy with that, but my big problem is i dont have luck in love always fall in love with a wrong people so they use me then run away from me. This is killing me so much especially im a woman 40yrs old not married not kids, im dying to have kids with someone special but it doent happen. most of the man who really like me i dont find them attractive at all so i dont know what to do with ma life any more please help!"

maggy commented on 02/21/2013:

"So true,i need to be content with where i am on my journey to where i see myself."

maggy commented on 02/21/2013:

"When i feel low and catch myself being ungrateful and critical,focusing on what is not right in my life,i find that what is beneficial is to write out a list of what is right and working in my life and be truly grateful to God for it.Its fuel when things are tough and shifts my focus to solutions for my challenges."

J. R. Necessary commented on 02/21/2013:

"Yes, we can't do anything about yesterday and if we worry too much about tomorrow, we won't enjoy today...the most important day of your life. Poistive mental Attitude (PMA-It's the only way.)"

Alice commented on 02/21/2013:

"Yes! I'm tired of being alive, I'm living!"

Ursula commented on 02/21/2013:

"As a teacher used to say, "not doing anything is already a choice." A choice to give myself the opportunity of awareness, and not get caught in everyday's turmoil."

maheen commented on 02/22/2013:

"i want to say that yes i had some problems in my life.. but when you keenly decide to change your position you can by believing in yourself..yes there are also somethings i desired long to get but i could not, but i know soon everything will be ok"

Simka commented on 02/23/2013:

"There you go excellent again! So inspiring and motivating,always giving exsactly what is necessary to boost ones confidence and a push forward. Thank You."

Margaret commented on 02/23/2013:

"Thanks for this life reviving message.God bless you and replenish you abundantly."

Md Shah commented on 02/24/2013:

"Excellent article"

Arvind commented on 02/26/2013:

"Nice article.Thanks for discussing truth of life and showing the remidies to live the life."

Joshua commented on 02/27/2013:

"this is healing therapy"

Carol commented on 02/27/2013:

"Refreshing way of looking at situations and so very true!!! Excellent way to finally begin to live the life i've been wanting for sooo long..."

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Life Satisfaction and Self Esteem

How can you become more satisfied and content?

Reacting to Difficulties and Problems

Comments (14)