Importance of Self-Esteem

Self- esteem is an important part of life. Without strong self-esteem we are not at our full potential. We need strong self-esteem to have the confidence to do many tasks. The way others perceive us has an effect on our self-esteem as well as how we perceive ourselves. In order to have good self-esteem, we need others to be encouraging and communicate in a positive way. We also need to build our own self-esteem by realizing we need to be our self, not what others necessarily think we should be. Negativity from others only lowers our self-esteem and makes us less confident. We need confidence in order to communicate well with others.
As I ponder on my self-esteem, I feel I am very confident in most areas but really lacking in others. An area that my self-esteem is lacking is speaking in front of a group of people or having a conversation with someone who is not very talkative. I am normally a very talkative person but when it comes to communicating in the two situations mentioned above, my confidence goes out the window, so to speak. A perfect example of my problem is an Art class I recently took. My assignment was to do a painting by a certain artist and a presentation board on the artist. I was to get in front of my class and do a three to four minute presentation on the artist. I was very anxious from the day I received the assignment until the assignment was finished. Three or four minutes in front of a group of people seemed a life time to me because I do not have confidence when it comes to speaking in front of a group of people I know, much less a group of strangers. I felt I had done my best and my work was good. I felt like I had an A on the project but the anxiety would not go away. When I entered class the day of my presentation, I was shaking like a leaf. When my name was called to do my presentation matters only got worse. I got in front of class and forgot what I wanted to say, which did not matter because I could barely speak. Thank goodness, my