“When your focus is instead on protecting your self-esteem, you can’t afford to really look at yourself honestly. You can’t acknowledge the need for improvement, because it means acknowledging weaknesses and shortcomings — threats to self-esteem that create feelings of anxiety and depression. How can you learn how to do things right when it’s killing you to admit — even to yourself — that you’ve done them wrong?”

– Dr. Heidi Grant Halvorson, from her article, “To Succeed, Forget Self-Esteem,” Harvard Business Review.  The whole article is well worth reading.