Beginning today, don't wait for anyone to make you feel good. Become your own best friend.

Here are three steps to help you get started:

* 1. Look inside yourself to see what gives you most satisfaction, and then go for it.

* 2. Become familiar with people and places where you feel respected and valued.

* 3. Learn to encourage yourself. Make it a natural habit. When you don't value yourself as a person, you may not be able to recognize all of your strengths. When you begin to encourage yourself, you'll become more satisfied with your life. As you begin to recognize and value your own strengths and resources, you'll start to give yourself more positive messages.

As you become more satisfied with yourself, you won't feel a need to compare yourself with others. Instead, you will note your own progress and set your own standards. You'll feel like working with people, not against them.

Now, here are ten steps to help you build your self-esteem.

* 1. Adapt attitude that you are a responsible and dependable person. Others will respect you and come to you willingly.

It was most unexpected yesterday when I got to view this up front, personal and far from comfortable.

A friend and their family were traveling for Christmas and asked my daughter to go over to feed their dogs for week until they arrived back from holiday. We both tend to spoil our dogs; they are members of family. They eat when we eat, go where we go and get lots of love and attention each day. Leaving these “attention hounds” at home for a week didn’t seem like a very good idea to me. Silly me, suggested rather than my daughter visiting them each day, it would be better to bring them here for week.

The dogs walk with our two daughters together all time, so they were not strangers and they all played well together. So what could possibly be harm in having four large, male dogs at our home for week?

The Alpha’s---that’s what.

Cadman-a purebred black lab, a follower and mine. He gave up within his first week of joining our family of ever holding Alpha position and has gladly gone on to simply live each day chasing birds and being a sniffer.

Moose –a mutt rescued from pound. 145 pounds of Pyrenees mix. In our home is 100% Alpha between two. He is an anger management dog. Moose gladly joined family and promptly took over Alpha role.

Buddy –one of our visitors, an Australian Shepard/Blue Healer mix. He is pure Alpha in his house, even though he is deaf. No one is allowed to eat until he has selected bowl he wants. No one is allowed to go through a door until he has passed through. No one is allowed to drink from his water dish ever, PERIOD! Did I mention this Alpha is deaf?

Prince –one of our visitors, a purebred Australian Shepard. His role in life is to tend to Buddy and his special needs due to deafness.