Category: Inner Work

Inner Work

Building Bachelor Self-Esteem (Part II)

By Ed Anderson | by Ed Anderson

In this piece, I will cover three additional principles for building self-esteem.  If you missed earlier segments in this series, check the menu under “foundations.” The three remaining principles are: Find Meaning Understand Uproot the Negative 1. Find Meaning Bachelors have to find their own meaning, because the sources of meaning that traditional men use are not available to us (e.g., marriage, children, work to support that).  We must find meaning off the beaten path. …

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Inner Work

Building Bachelor Self-Esteem (Part I)

By Ed Anderson | by Ed Anderson

We don’t get self-esteem by blowing ourselves kisses in the mirror.  I tried; it doesn’t work.  Building self-esteem (or “self-respect,” if you prefer) requires work, and it requires a certain kind of work, specific practices.  I will describe two of those practices in this piece and three in the next.   These practices emerge not from my posterior but from decades of reading and experience, personal and professional.  I will focus on the part we…

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Inner Work

Why Self-Esteem is Essential for Bachelors

By Ed Anderson | by Ed Anderson

The bachelor life isn’t for everyone.  In some ways, it’s a hard road. It comes at a price.  That is what this article is about: the costs of traveling this toll road, and how self-esteem can help defray those costs.  More broadly, I want to lay out the case that self-esteem is essential for bachelor contentment.  Before we get to the bachelors, though, let’s appreciate the importance of self-esteem in general, for everyone.  Self-esteem (or…

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Inner Work

Self-Esteem for Bachelors: Introduction

By Ed Anderson | by Ed Anderson

If you want to live a happy, contented life as a bachelor, there is no more essential internal ingredient than good self-esteem.  Conversely, if you lack self-esteem, your bachelor road will be rutted and difficult. It is worth spending some time thinking about and developing this quality.     Over the next several articles, I want to lay out the following: What self-esteem is and isn’t, and how you can distinguish the genuine article from the…

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Inner Work

Independence

By Ed Anderson | by Ed Anderson

Psychological independence is a cornerstone of a good single life, but we don’t hear much about it.  Oh, we get memes, one-liners, and slogans – be yourself, chart your own course, go your own way, maintain frame, be your own mental point of origin, etc.  But that’s about as far as it goes.  There is very little in-depth discussion of independence – what it is, where it comes from, how to develop it.  That is…

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