Tips of Wiseberg #3. Nathaniel Branden. "The Six Pillars of Self-Esteem."

Mar 8 / Guntars Baikovs
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How Biblical wisdom helps us to understand this world and ourselves.

Today a bit about self-esteem and where to get it? This is important for individuals and also for organizations.

But first, a reminder that we understand wisdom as God’s good and wise design for our lives, as principles built deep into the very fabric of creation and society.

Why would you need it?
Because, it gives you the ability to see clearly and to understand deeply what works in this world and what doesn’t
and why it is so.
This is also true about our self-esteem.
Tips of Wiseberg #3. Nathaniel Branden. "The Six Pillars of Self-Esteem." 
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Nathaniel Branden and his book “The Six Pillars of Self-Esteem”.

Nathaniel Branden was one of the leading figures on the topic of self-esteem, he drew on a lifetime of clinical experience and research, he was even called the father of the concept of self-esteem.

He describes self-esteem as the immune system of consciousness, which is essential for performing at our best. The idea is very simple and we can relate to it.

Higher self-esteem helps to deal better much more efficiently with all the various life challenges that come our way, compared with lower self-esteem.
And then he describes six pillars that help to bolster this so-called "immune system".
First is mindfulness, understood as three facets of our perception - facts, interpretation and emotions. Second and third are self-acceptance and self-responsibility. Valuing ourselves for who we are and being solution oriented instead of blaming others. Fourth is self-assertiveness, it is about affirming our right to exist as he puts it. Fifth is living purposefully – enacting your life’s purpose, and sixth is about practicing personal integrity, in other words – striving to live a moral and virtuous life.

Then he observed that those are parents and then teachers and then those in positions of authority in workplaces who can have the greatest impact on our self-esteem. And this is interesting, if you want your organization to succeed, you need people with high self-esteem. You either need to look for such people or to create them. This is how Nathaniel Branden observed what works and formulated these six pillars. Great. Good things.
This is where Biblica wisdom and the power of Biblical worldview comes in and strengthens the case. This is where someone equipped with Biblical wisdom can go a step further and also explain why these pillars would work and even more – to provide unparalleled resources to make them work even better.
How? It is easy. For example…

Second pillar was about valuing ourselves for who we are. Fourth pillar was self-assertiveness, it is about affirming our right to exist as he puts it.
This is about our identity: who am I? And the answer depends on what worldview we have embraced. If it is secular Western, then we are, as some students told me, bags of chemicals, atoms and molecules, lumps of cells, we are here totally by accident. In the East, we are souls imprisoned in these bodies, struggling to escape the prison of this material world…
Where would the high self-esteem come from? It’s then up to us to invent it.

Where on the other hand, in the Biblical worldview, every human being is created in God’s image and likeness to be God’s representatives on earth, infinitely precious, more, redeemed by Christ to be heirs of God’s Kingdom…
You are very special and valuable. And that’s God’s verdict. 

Fifth pillar is living purposefully – enacting your life’s purpose, and sixth is about striving to live a moral and virtuous life. How can you enact your purpose, if we live in a purposeless universe? How can we lead moral and virtuous lives, if there are not moral absolutes, if we can make up our own rules? It certainly creates some challenges for our self-esteem… No ideal…

On the other hand, in the Biblical worldview you are created for an incredibly purposeful life, with so many different callings and responsibilities, to live and thrive in them following the Creator’s wise instructions.

And then about those who could help us the most, those in the office of parents, those with responsibilities to care for us, this is their role to care for us and to help us to maximize the potential we have in us. So, the Biblical worldview provides what we truly need for our self-esteem – it gives us significance and value and purpose and meaning and moral framework, and it does it much better than any other worldview, it also provides instructions for those who can affect our self-esteem the most.

See, Biblical wisdom is good for each one of us, for those in positions of responsibilities, for every organization, and also for those very smart social sciences researchers who try to understand how we as human beings operate.

It does make even the simple wise...
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