The Impact of COVID19 on the Self-Esteem on Business Professionals, and their careers
Studies show that at least 85% or more of the world’s people suffer from some degree of lacking self-esteem, whether that is about their appearance, their speech or their popularity on social media. Although one might think that such challenges are only characteristic of the poor, uneducated, or lower socio-economic members of society, people from all walks of life can suffer situational or more widespread challenges with their levels of self-esteem.
Many very successful business-people lack self-esteem in an area of their lives. We see this every year when a celebrity ends up in rehab, or is found drunk at the wheel of their car or even worse. Perhaps they feel socially challenged or they have difficulty establishing close or intimate relationships, with the people that matter the most. We may experience low self-esteem with regard to physical appearance or health. Perhaps we are not having any fun in our lives, maybe devoting too much attention to our work. We compensate for feeling deficient by working harder and finding a place we can excel through our work. This provides a new focus where we can win but it doesn’t fulfill our neglected needs in areas like relationships, recreation, personal and spiritual development, health and our ability to lead a balanced, fun, and fulfilling life. If there is one key lesson from the global pandemic and COVID19 it is that work can be achieved differently and time for life style can be made.
There is nothing wrong with finding an occupational niche, to be successful and feel good about oneself. Since business is an area where we can shine, we neglect other areas to focus excessively on business. I have a number of old school colleagues who went into financial services many years ago, who have been extremely successful and have lead a good life by all accounts. But 2020 was particularly tough not because they lost their jobs, on the contrary, their professions were perfect to make the transition to working from home; but they struggled because, they were not at work. Their whole social ecosystem was entwined in the bars, pubs and restaurants near the office, and when this was taken away abruptly, they questioned their value, they reassessed their lifestyles, some succumbed to experiencing low self esteem and even depression.
However, since their new perception of the man or woman in the mirror is built upon the flawed belief that they are somehow not good enough, somehow defective, or unworthy of being fully loved and accepted, and their fracturing satisfaction of themselves, even in the areas where they have obliviously excelled. It is as though they are climbing a ladder with the top of the ladder in the clouds, like the children’s story, ‘Jack and the Beanstalk’. They think that if they can just climb high enough, they will be content. They will have proven their worth to others. That they will find satisfaction, happiness, and fulfilment in reaching the top. However, the climb higher and higher, does not seem to deliver a satisfying destination. There are always new goals and objectives challenging executives to prove their worth.
The more we achieve, the more we have yet to go. Try as they will, they never seem to fully measure up. Next year’s target is always higher, never receding never going down but only up. Sales meetings are fun events, the gongs, the certificates, the photoshoots the adulation of your peers, the all-inclusive holiday, the Aston Martin on a year’s lease paid for by the company; but the old sales managers mantra would always come wafting to your ear the morning after the event, ‘That was last year’s results, your sales have been reset to zero, now do it again!’ There is no arriving at the point, that we long for so badly, the peace of mind that comes from self-love and self-acceptance.
Because the foundation of our ladder is grounded in quicksand, some have found themselves sinking as rapidly as they climb. In fact, from our perspective, we will never reach the perfection we seek so badly. We will always find evidence to highlight our flaws and reinforce our fears of being unworthy, unlovable, defective in some way. More so now that the carefully crafted career that we are the sole architect of, has been taken away, in a puff, in a flickering moment then it was gone.
Some people buy into the idea that there is something wrong with them, that they are somehow inadequate, not good enough and not worthy of being loved and accessing all the good things that life has to offer. If we are willing to examine our past to get to the source of our resignation and diminished self-esteem, then we can reinterpret what happened to us in such a way that we can heal and eliminate negative self-talk while making a conscious decision to live our lives from an assessment to strive for excellence, and contribute to others. By developing a firm belief that we can impact other people positively and the world around them. In fact, we are very worthy of receiving life’s blessings.
In addition to the cost of never finding true happiness, long-term fulfillment, or peace, lacking self-esteem impacts business people in many other ways. For example, by not getting to the source of our self-esteem issues, we sacrifice our personal power, our ability to best pursue our lifes purpose and fully manifest our gifts in the world. If our energy is spent by being preoccupied with our weaknesses or being incomplete, we can never be fully present to today and so we sacrifice our true potential to bring about a result instead of delivering a purpose.
Our relationships suffer as we will misinterpret the words and actions of others in a way that invalidates us and has us feeling badly about who we are or want to be. We may be so driven to prove we are good enough, that we sacrifice our personal effectiveness and charisma, integrity and uniqueness by focusing on ourselves and our deficiencies, rather than on the wants and needs of others. We may overcompensate and turn to workaholic tendencies out of a desire to prove our worth to others and to ourselves. Because of this misdirected focus, we trade our ability to impact others maximally and to best contribute our gifts to the world.
The answer to escaping the vicious cycle of lacking self-esteem, starts with healing one’s past so that it no longer robs us of energy and consumes our attention. Once the pull of past ghosts is severed, we can turn our attention to properly analyzing our present state of affairs. We can identify what’s working in our lives and what’s missing; to support living an upset-free life by choice. A life that honours our most important values and inspires us to live passionately for others rather than for ourselves.
And finally, we can take that magic wand that is our birth-right, wave it over our lives and design our future deliberately. We can choose to do so in a way that excites us, as we cast off that gloomy state of low self-esteem, unhealthy resignation and self-pity that no longer supports us. We can live with the intention to honour our God-given magnificence and lead happy, fulfilled lives that fully contribute to others as we share our gifts with the world.
Let me finish with this story.
A motivational speaker arrives on a stage dressed as a Unicorn, he struts around encouraging his audience to stand and scream and enjoy the moment. But after emerging from the chrysalis of his outfit like a butterfly, he told a story that kind of sums up this whole article.
‘His son-in-law, who he called his son, was list enlisted to go to war, but the company that his son was a part of did not have all of the equipment to go to war safely. He was a man that started from lowly means, but he had done ok in life and decided to ask for a meeting with the commander of the company to see if he could help. He asked the commander ‘What do you need?’ And he was given a list, he then told the commander ‘I got this!’. His son went off to war and during his deployment, he was blown up by an IED, and he was badly injured. As he was being transported to the field hospital, the medic who was looking after him said, ‘The individual who provided the tunica’s and lights, has saved some many lives today. The young soldier replied, ‘That was my Dad!’
By seeking to protect a whole company, the Unicorn Man had inadvertently saved the life of his son as well as others. I end this article with a quote from the father “True wealth gives you the power to protect and heal those who cannot protect and heal themselves”.
Moral of the story is, help someone else and they will help you rebuild your self-esteem. Stay safe and well in 2021.
#selfesteem #redundancy #covid19 #economiccrisis
