Your self-esteem is an important tool that affects almost every aspect of your life. Having low self-esteem infects a person like a virus by slowly consuming them, which can cause various mental health issues like depression. When a person has high self-esteem, he or she will have a positive attitude as well as feel both mentally and physically superior. Here are 7 things you can try that will improve your self-esteem.

1. Add some fitness in your life.

Victor Freitas

Body Image is one of the biggest killers of self-esteem. Fortunately, this may contain the simplest plan to overcome. Eat right and exercise more - that is literally it. Even if you don't hit the gym much, just eating right can have a huge effect on your body. Whether you want to gain weight or lose it, the food you eat and the fitness you participate in will get you the body you want and deserve.

2. Do things that make you smile.

Self-esteem issues don't make a person happy. In fact, they bring on a lot of sadness and internal pain. When combating low self-esteem, it is important you smile, because smiling brings happiness. Do something that you enjoy that will bring a smile and a dose of happiness into your life every day. It can be as small as petting a dog or as large as buying a new car. When you start to smile more, you become increasingly happier, which will also change how you view yourself and boost your self-esteem.

3. Keep a positive mindset.

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If every failure you have makes you curl up and feel bad about yourself, then you don't have a positive mindset. You view that failure as an unfixable flaw, when in fact, a failure is just a learning experience. Have the mindset that when you fail to try again and fix what you did wrong. Don't view the failure as something wrong with you. When you change the way you view failure and have that positive mindset, you won't think anything is wrong with you, thus increasing self-esteem.

4. Try new things.

Self-esteem is all about how you feel about yourself. If you're good at a lot of things, then you'll feel better about yourself, knowing you're good at something. Well, the only way to find out if you're good at something is to try new things. Start trying new activities and adopt new hobbies that you have a talent or interest for. Find things you're good at and you will start to feel better about yourself.

5. Be social.

Helena Lopes

A side effect of a low self-esteem is usually a tendency to be anti-social. If you feel bad about yourself, why be around people, right? They will just hate you as much as you hate yourself. Wrong. That is not the case at all. When you become more social and make new friends, you'll find out they like a lot of things about you. They can help you see what makes you great, which can raise your self-esteem quickly.

6. Avoid negative people.

Speaking of making new friends, you may have to get rid of some old ones in the process. I had friends in high school who were always so negative and always making fun of me. I dismissed their constant harassment as a "boys will be boys" sort of thing, but when I finally left them behind, I instantly felt better. I could be myself and I wasn't being constantly reminded of my flaws. If you have negative people in your life, you need to cut them out. It won't be easy, but by doing so, you will feel so much better about yourself in the long run.

7. Set attainable goals.

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In today's society, the goals people have are sometimes too big. Some are so big that a person cannot be happy and feel good about themselves until they reach it, which can take years. So, set smaller goals that you can be proud of when you achieve them. Achieving these small goals shows yourself that you are actually making progress toward a larger goal. This feeling of progress in the direction you want is a great way to boost self-esteem.