1. Eat healthy food.

People spend thousands and even millions of dollars trying to get in good shape and loose weight. And they fool themselves when they think that a particular diet or pill is the miracle. They fool themselves because they know these are only quick fixes (if it actually works) but they try them anyway, hoping that maybe, with some luck, it will last.

First, eat 5 times a day, healthy and balanced meals. Get rid of sodas and drink water or nutritional shakes. I challenge you, for the next 30 days, to get rid of all the sodas you have in your house. Eat the same as you do but without soda. You'll be amazed at the simplicity of this method but just drinking water instead of soda or even milk at every meal will give you more energy and you will see a big difference in your waist.

Second, exercise every day. Buy a gym center pass for $300 for the entire year. I'm sure you spend more than that on soda during the year. Every morning, go to the gym, for no more than 20 minutes, and do some cardio or lift some weight. If you don't have the money to buy a pass (but you have to buy some soda every day), walk, run or do some abs and pushups at home.

Don't underestimate what I'm sharing with you now. It's huge because when you do that, you will feel good about yourself, you will have more energy to live your passion every day. If you have more energy, you will have better results and you will feel even better about yourself. This is how you increase your self-esteem, by doing the things you should do every day.

2. Dress correctly every day.

Appearance is everything for a lot of people. For some, it is just a detail. I will tell you that the way you look will increase your self esteem. If you have a nice haircut, a nice pair of pants for men or a nice dress for women, if you have a nice shirt, nice, comfortable shoes, people will look up to you as someone different and accomplished, more accomplished than if you look like you're wearing pajamas.

When you will look at yourself in the mirror, you will like what you see, more than if you have big, unkempt hair and go unshaven.

The way you see yourself and the way people see and perceive you will have a great effect on how you feel about yourself. And whenever you feel good about yourself, you raise your self-esteem.

3. Smile.

Professor Paul Ekman is very well known because of his expertise on facial expressions and emotional states. He concluded that ?smiling and laughing set off biological processes that, in fact, make us feel good. They increase the flow of blood to the brain and change the level of oxygen, the level of stimulation of the neurotransmitters.?

Smiling at yourself in a mirror, or at someone, will increase the positive feeling you have about yourself. When you sincerely smile at someone, you recognize his or her value and even if you don't say a word, the other person will automatically good about him or herself.

And by the law of reciprocity, most people will return the smile and it's your turn to feel good about yourself.

These 3 small, simple methods can accomplish huge things for you and for others. The way you eat, the way you dress and the way you smile will increase or decrease the level of your self-esteem. No need to spend hundreds of dollars in clothes, in food supplement or diets, you already have all the resources you need to have high and healthy self-esteem.

Copyright 2006 Emmanuel Segui