We all have a natural drive to seek positive esteem. It is written into our source code. This podcast examines ways to derive more lasting happiness and self-esteem by understanding the drive and utilising it more wisely. The truth is we are all, on average, average on most things. But we have a superiority bias where we tend to over-rate ourselves on most things. The word average, has indeed, often come to mean bad or poor, so it creates insecurity when it is true, when we are not as good as we or other people may think we are. This very pervasive ego trap, where we try to disguise our shortcomings, causes untold suffering. The antidote to this is solid self-esteem based on diligence applied to important tasks and by seeking and applying honest feedback from people we respect. It is built on the back of a growth mindset where attention is trained on the task, not on how we are looking. It is deepened by relaxing unrealistic standards and slowly and continuously improving and thereby truly earning our successes.
