You have the right to be happy and successful, but rights are hard won and require constant vigilance to defend.

Self-esteem is the reputation you get with yourself. You develop this reputation through your actions. Competent, confident and courageous actions enhance self-esteem and build inner strength. Such experience leads to the conviction that you are competent to cope with the challenges of life — and the belief that you deserve happiness and success to be yours.

The opposite is also true. Actions that sell yourself short, that take the easy road, that require less than your best effort chip away at your inner strength. You may fool others, but you never really fool yourself.

In Succeeding Through Inner Strength, pioneering psychologist Nathaniel Branden explores self-esteem, its components, how to make it grow, and how, with enhanced self-esteem, you can move toward greater success and happiness in all areas of your life.

What’s good in your life? What still needs to be done?

Dr. Branden begins with these two deceptively simple questions, to lead you through an exploration of your self-esteem. You examine the confidence you hold in your abilities, the responsibility you take for your actions, and the conviction that you maintain even in life’s toughest moments.

Dr. Branden encourages a level of awareness of your life that, in turn, improves both your relationship with yourself and all the relationships you share at home and at work.

As your self-esteem grows you are better able to give and receive love, to express your emotional self more freely and to accept the vulnerabilities, needs and emotions of others.

Succeeding Through Inner Strength is a “call to action.” It is for anyone interested in building strength where it really matters, within.