Coaching practices for The Six Pillars of Self Esteem Under Stress

Describe almost anything you are working through and IX Coach finds the practices whose real-world fit is closest. For The Six Pillars of Self Esteem Under Stress, these are the strongest matches in the current practice library.

Does this sound like the set of challenges you might be facing?

• I’ve got a big evaluation looming and I can already feel myself bracing to defend my whole worth on it
• Before any big evaluation my whole sense of worth narrows down to how I’ll perform in that one room, and if I bomb it I feel like I’m worthless as a person
• I keep waiting for someone else to fix my situation or change so things get better
• Walking into this test I can feel the weight of proving that people like me can do it, and that pressure eats up so much of my head that I choke on the very thing I’m most afraid of confirming about my group.
• My days are just whatever circumstances throw at me

Practices that may help

1. The Six Pillars of Self-Esteem, Made Practical
   Nathaniel Branden defines self-esteem as the experience of being competent to meet life’s challenges and worthy of happiness, and argues it is built through six daily practices: living consciously, self-acceptance, self-responsibility, self-assertiveness, living purposefully, and personal integrity. Branden’s framework is clinically derived practitioner theory rather than trial-tested protocol, though each pillar overlaps with constructs that have their own research.
2. Write about a value that matters to you
   Before a stressful or threatening situation, spend five minutes writing about a value that is genuinely important to you.
   Self-Affirmation Theory, Made Practical
3. Use value-based self-affirmation before threatening evaluations
   Before a threatening evaluation, write for 10 minutes about a value that matters to you — unrelated to the domain being evaluated.
   Power Posing Revisited
4. The practice of self-responsibility
   Own that you are the author of your choices, actions, and the fulfillment of your wants.
   The Six Pillars of Self-Esteem, Made Practical
5. Use values affirmation to counter stereotype threat
   When your social identity is under threat, a brief values reflection can protect performance.
   Self-Affirmation Theory, Made Practical
6. The practice of living purposefully
   Set goals, pursue them deliberately, and monitor whether your actions match your intentions.
   The Six Pillars of Self-Esteem, Made Practical
7. Build authentic rather than defensive self-esteem
   Distinguish self-worth grounded in genuine values from self-worth propped up by external validation.
   Terror Management Theory, Made Practical
8. The practice of self-assertiveness
   Honor your wants, needs, and values by expressing them in the world — appropriately and openly.
   The Six Pillars of Self-Esteem, Made Practical
9. Prepare coping self-talk in advance
   Script what you will say to yourself at the trigger, during the peak, and afterward — before you need it.
   Stress Inoculation Training
10. The practice of living consciously
    Bring awareness to what you are doing and seeing, rather than acting on autopilot or avoidance.
    The Six Pillars of Self-Esteem, Made Practical

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