| Direction (1-7): Read the passage given below carefully and answer the questions. |
| Today when we pick up a daily newspaper, we invariably find an increasing incidence of vandalism, fraud, theft, robbery, rape, murders, hate crimes, genocide (now termed as ethnic cleansing) along with a multitude of other senseless violent acts that have become disturbingly common. These are not the actions of people who like themselves. |
| The solution to a great many problems, whether personal, national or global, lies in improving our feelings about ourselves both as individuals and members of society. When the significance of good self-esteem is well understood and it achieves the prominence it deserves, a transformation will begin, for as the people will learn they are deserving of self-respect, their respect for others will automatically increase. |
| Most of our behaviour has been shaped by our parents, caregivers and authority figures who played an important part in our early upbringing and were responsible for crystallising our ideas about ourselves and the world. While everyone has self-esteem, only a small percentage of us have high self-esteem. High self-esteem denotes that we accept ourselves unconditionally exactly as we are, we appreciate our value as a human being. When, on the other hand, we have low self-esteem, we believe that we have little intrinsic worth. |
| We believe our personal value is in direct proportion to the value of our accomplishments. If we cannot accomplish certain results, we tend to feel low about ourselves. Some of us try too hard and become workaholics and over-achievers, with a few genuine feelings of self-worth, we try to create some and prove that we are somebody by our successes and achievements. Because our desire for perfection is so great, we tend to set unrealistic goals and place unreasonable demands on ourselves. Failing, rather than encouraging us to have realistic aspirations, only leads to a mere punishing round of self-blame and a resolve to drive ourselves harder next time. If we do finally achieve our goals we are disappointed; despite everything we have done, we still feel empty inside. |
| Vulnerable to the opinions of others, we desperately try to gain their recognition and approval sometimes through risky and dangerous behaviour. Thus, we are at the mercy of our emotions, instead of controlling them, we permit them to control us. Since we allow circumstances to influence our feelings, we are inclined to be moody. The insecurity we feel as a result of devaluing ourselves makes us react with jealousy, envy and possessiveness. Fear makes us greedy and acquisitive, and feelings of self-hate alternate with those of futility, unhappiness and depression. |
| Sound self-esteem is the basis for all self-improvement. As human beings, our potential is limitless, our abilities inexhaustible, and the possibilities for creative and constructive changes are endless. But, we won't experience satisfactory progress towards our goals or make any lasting improvements unless we believe we deserve the good we want. Conditions in our lives will improve permanently only when we believe we are entitled to something better. So improving our self-esteem inwardly is the vital ingredient for improving our lives. |
