sometimes I think the phrase self-esteem have been bantered about so much that it is essentially meaningless now.

In fact, I think that the phrase has been so inculcated into our vernacular that we have generations of persons who think that they entitled to just about anything they want.

The notion that we should walk around all the time thinking "I am the best thing ever" is a flawed notion.

At it's origin, though, I think self-esteem referred to the intrinisic birthright of a human being to have a sense of self, of boundaries, and of belonging.

Such that we can't be overhwelmed by the events around us, but are secure as a human being, having mass, occupying space, and with personal efficacy.

It perhaps originally spoke to the idea that we are all flawed, utterly imperfect, but okay as a general rule. Those things we do wrong we try to change, those things we do right, we do early and often.