I think high self-esteem is overrated. A little low self-esteem is actually quite good…Maybe you’re not the best, so you should work a little harder.
– Jay Leno, O Magazine, February 2003

When I went to school, they told us that Self Esteem was important. We needed to think highly of ourselves in order to succeed. No matter how hard I tried, I was never able to really grow an arrogance. Only a crazy person would look at my life and think that there was not room for improvement. I sometimes think that no matter how well I improve, I can always get better.

I just read Scientific American’s article about self esteem:

Scientific American – Exploding the Self-Esteem Myth by Roy F. Baumeister, Jennifer D. Campbell, Joachim I. Krueger and Kathleen D. Vohs

Now, it seems, the pendulum is swinging the other way. Self Esteem has been researched in countless studies. After years of telling people that low self esteem was the cause of all the world’s woes, it turns out that they were wrong. There is little to no correlation between low self esteem and aggression, drug use or promiscuity. There is little to no correlation between high self esteem and excellence. The best the article could give me was this quote: “In the course of our literature review, we found some indications that self-esteem is a helpful attribute.”

Good thing for me, because I have been flunking high self esteem since the sixth grade. Now that it’s out of style, maybe they’ll have low self esteem classes where a gym teacher makes you balance on a Bosu Ball while the rest of the class points and laughs at your butt. I could ace that class.