How to Raise Your Self-Esteem: The Proven Action-Oriented Approach to Greater Self-Respect and Self-Confidence

by Nathaniel Branden

Of all the judgments you make in life, none is as  important as the one you make about yourself. The  difference between low self-esteem and high  self-esteem is the difference between passivity and  action, between failure and success. Now, one of  America's foremost psychologists and a pioneer in  self-esteem development offers a step-by-step guide to  strengthening your sense of self-worth. Here are  simple, straightforward and   effective techniques that will dramatically improve  the way you think and feel about yourself. You'll  

How to break free of negative  self-concepts and self-defeating behavior.

How  to dissolve internal barriers to success in work  and love.

How to overcome anxiety,  depression, guilt and anger.

How to conquer the  fear of intimacy and success.

How to find  -- and keep -- the courage to love yourself.

  And much more.

Genres: Psychology, Self Help, Nonfiction, Personal Development, Self Esteem, Mental Health, Personal Growth

176 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1987

About the author

Nathaniel Branden was a Canadian–American psychotherapist and writer known for his work in the psychology of self-esteem. A former associate and romantic partner of Ayn Rand, Branden also played a prominent role in the 1960s in promoting Rand's philosophy, Objectivism. Rand and Branden split acrimoniously in 1968, after which Branden focused on developing his own psychological theories and modes of therapy.

Reviews

[Leslie D. Soule · Rating 5 out of 5]

This books reads less like a novel and more like a workbook, which is how a good self-help book ought to be. Branden doesn't let his readers get away with just reading words on a page - he makes them work for their self-esteem.
Sometimes I am my own worst enemy - my harshest critic. Branden asks us to examine our behavior and question whose standards we are judging them by. Branden mentions that the exercises in this book are designed in order to help a person tap into their own subconscious thoughts, and this seems helpful for getting down to the roots of self-esteem problems.
I can honestly say that this book has helped me to get in touch with who I am as a person, and I feel like my self-esteem has improved since I've read it. That being said, this book is not a miracle insta-cure for low self-esteem. You will have to work at it. Fortunately, this book will show you how, and it's worth it.

-Torchlight Reviews

[Ladan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is like a map by which you will find your coordination, where you are, where you wanna go and where you are unconsciously headed. Reading this book reveals all the lies you have been telling yourself a lifetime, it unravels the reasons behind all the actions you take and then you are surprised that is it really you doing this? It kills the hope for waiting for a rescuer and honestly asks you to take the responsibility for your developement and growth. It takes away all the alibies and cuts your point finger which is trying to find sb to blame. This is a workbook for step by step self developement so please do the sentence completions passionately and take them serious.
R.I.P dear Nathaniel

[BegumIrdawati · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good read on how psychological damage occurring from childhood through adulthood can transform you into a self-hating person just because you don't subscribe to the same norm of the people around you. This book helps you to identify the issue and raise above it. It will help if you do the exercises *ahaks!*

p/s: And then I googled Nathaniel Branden only to read about his own psychological battle (and babble hahaha) and his 'association' with Ayn Rand whose quote I love so much (apparently another psychoanalyst turned victim :p)

The ladder of success is best climbed by stepping on the rungs of opportunity. ~Ayn Rand

[Love · Rating 5 out of 5]

I picked this book in a difficult time in my life where I really needed such a practical method to get it together. While this might not be the absolute solution for raising self-esteem, it did help with shedding some light on the whole misunderstood concept of self confidence and how it really effects all sorts of people even those who had everything right on the outside. Recommended.

[Karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Of all the judgments you make in life, none is as important as the one you make about yourself. The difference between low self-esteem and high self-esteem is the difference between passivity and action, between failure and success... How to break free of negative self-concepts and self-defeating behaviors... dissolve internal barriers... conquer fear of intimacy... find and keep the courage to love yourself..."

[Chele · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really did not care for it. The author did have a lot of things to say which hit home, but the format and the sentence completions... it just did not work well with my style of learning and growing.

[Briana · Rating 4 out of 5]

A LOT of sentence completion exercises, this is a no-nonsense direct guide to raising your self esteem. Unless you are very driven some other of Branden's works like "Honoring the Self" might be a good first read if you're new to the subject.

[Gerry · Rating 3 out of 5]

It offered some insight into raising your self-esteem but it is a work book and you will need to do quite a lot of reflection to get the most out of the book by sentence completion exercises .

I do think it did not work very well with my learning style because I did not feel like doing some of the sentence completion exercises simply because, with all of the internal reflection I was doing I could not recall some of my very early years and felt I was just making stuff up.

Very good book overall though as it did help.

[Rue Koegel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Be mindful of Chapter 10; it's not relevant to the book, and the author uses inaccurate definitions of the key terms discussed. So there is really no reason to read Chapter 10... it would likely only lead to confusion, less the reader already know the accurate definitions for the key terms used; which would of course allow the reader to easily dismiss the contents of the chapter, since they are essentially nonsense (I could rewrite it so it made sense, with only a few words: self-care is a necessity, selfishness is not a virtue--and the two are neither the same thing, nor is one a subclass of the other).

The only valid information that can be gleaned from Chapter 10 is that when one of the authors previous books was originally published, in 1983, there was some confusion as to what 'selfishness' was. Not even Mr. Branden seems to have known while writing this book.

Chapter 11 also kinda references Chapter 10, but I'd say read it anyway.

Otherwise this book appears to be filled with appropriate and accurate content throughout.

[José · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing!!!!

The subjects covered here are straightforward, easy to understand... And the sentence completion exercises are an excellent starting point in the journey of self acceptance and self-esteem.

[Anthony Louis Garavito · Rating 4 out of 5]

Un libro con fundamentos psicológicos como el sí-mismo, el cultivo del respeto, reconocimiento y amor por uno mismo.

Branden explica las razones culturales que contribuyen a una baja autoestima, los estigmas o prejuicios de este concepto, reiterando la importancia del autoconcepto.

[Ceres · Rating 5 out of 5]

Provided practical tips not only on how to raise your self-esteem but your general mental state.

[the · Rating 3 out of 5]

DNF

[Linda Wall · Rating 5 out of 5]

The first time I read How to Raise Your Self-Esteem: the Proven Action-Oriented Approach to Greater Self-Respect and Self-Confidence was back in 2009; I completed reading this for the second time in the fall of 2019. In fits and starts, I spent over a year and a half actually doing the exercises throughout the book. As the subtitle says, it’s an ‘action-oriented’ approach to raise your self-esteem, increase greater self-respect and self-confidence.

Using a unique method of healing early wounds, Nathaniel Brandon offers the reader an opportunity to go back and process the unprocessed feelings of abandonment, rejection, guilt, shame etc using sentence completion procedure. One is invited to complete incomplete sentences, or sentence stems by whatever comes up for them in the process. For example, one would be urged to write six to ten sentence endings as quickly as possible without analyzing their responses to the following: Sometimes, looking back over my life, I can hardly believe that at one time I___ and now they finish the sentence. Or, it’s not easy for me to admit that____

The exercises take one through their childhood into adulthood using this method. Sometimes I found it difficult to feel and process the emotions, but that was the whole purpose of using the book – to get to those unprocessed feelings and let them go.

This is a very valuable workbook for those wanting to heal and let go of their past.

I highly recommend.

[Adriana · Rating 1 out of 5]

After struggling with this book for almost a year now, I have abandoned it at the child-self and teenage-self chapter. I felt this chapter was a complete miss for me. This book in general is good to make you understand what experiences in life made your self esteem lower and what you might do to improve it. If you take your time to do the exercises, like I did, this book is a powerful source of self awareness. However, especially the long sentence completions exercises made this book so tedious for me and I had to force myself to go forward. Overall, it did not improve my self esteem just made me think about it more often than I did before.

[Michael David · Rating 2 out of 5]

I have discovered a new way to use books: they're not merely for reading; to me, they're also a form of memory storage. I'm using them the way Proust used a madeleine to evoke images of the past.

This book isn't really as impressive as the psychiatric books I've read in the recent past, but this book is a reminder that while I was reading it, I was in an island, drinking Carlo Rossi, and talking about worthwhile stuff with two great friends. The book, as a whole, was all right, but unimpressive.

[Mrs Mangoa · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was being lazy reading the book simply because of the various exercises in it. But that said, it was very insightful. There is a lot of things I've learnt and will definitely be applying to my own life.

I enjoyed the idea of living authentically and also truthfully with oneself. I also was struck by the thought of how there is a tendency to view self-confidence as selfishness when in essence it isn't. It's more of an affirmation for all. It is better to live in a world where people are self confident to be able to achieve their dreams.

All in all a good read.

[Nelson · Rating 5 out of 5]

The book is based on an approach that seeks to bring clarity to our behavior, its root causes, and the consequences for self-esteem. Through exercises proposed by the author, we can return to contact with whom we have been in different stages of life, the child, the adolescent, integrating these different perspectives, abandoned throughout life, we feel more whole. Through this integration it is possible to increase self-understanding and close the internal war with different aspects of our personality, increasing self-acceptance, self-respect and consequently self-esteem.

[Shaili · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a gem; reading it was easy. Not one word from the book felt unnecessary, it felt exactly right. It was simultaneously comprehensive and compact. But like the author cautions, that without the exercises outlined in this book being exercised, it's the same as any other book: scintillating but useless.

Now it's the exercising part, let's see how it goes. I can already imagine some pain, aggression, and embarrassment coming my way as I address my issues. :)

[Gïrīśḥ Öm · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book on Raising Self-Esteem!
It’s a practical workbook touching most important topics like importance of self esteem, liberation from guilt, accepting the self as is, Leaving consciously, responsibly and authentically. Also it shows how to nurture the self esteem of others.
This is workbook and not just for reading. All the exercises will only work if practiced. A nice read on the subject and whoever wants to work on their self-esteem.

[Rafael George · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is not a mere introduction and the author explains it in the summary of the book. It's focus on people that already know the importance of self-esteem with practical ex. to raise your own self-esteem. Also this is not the typical self-help book this is something more which address problems that most people have and how to solve them. A most read.

[Diana]

I had to give up on it because the author does give a whole lot work to do. Unfortunately I got easily distracted and if I can't read it right now I have to move on to another book. However, the little info I got from the book was extremely helpful. My time to read this book in its entirety, will come soon! ;)

[Heather · Rating 5 out of 5]

If everyone applied the info in this book, it would add stability to their lives and we'd see a different society. Helps you to identify hurtful, repetitive mistakes and correct them in a positive way...without guilt.

[Beverly Dowdell · Rating 5 out of 5]

A life changing book .. While it takes effort to finish the sentences in his book they reveal so much about internal self talk to identify and clear out the negative and renew focus on a positive future.

[Shayna · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ok, I know what you are thinking. I had to read this book for a class, but I actually really enjoyed it! It definitely needs a new name so that people wouldn't be so turned off to it!

[Jose Amezcua · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good little book to uograde your life to the next level. Nathaniel wrote it as a guide. Little histories with his clasics excercise to complete sentences. It's good. It's not 5 stars to be short.

[Harvey L · Rating 4 out of 5]

very good

[Kirlyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

You would benefit most if you complete the activities. Great book for finding oneself.

[Paloy Tawanrat · Rating 5 out of 5]

Totally a great way to help to find the understanding with yourself.
Many mystery things which hard to understand is answer in this book.

[Florin Roșoga · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best books I've read from Nathaniel Branden.