Self-esteem is directly related to intelligence and is actually your intelligence in action.
That's the no-nonsense message from author Anne Bruce, who stresses the kind of intelligence she is talking about has nothing to do with a person's intellect.
"There are many types of intelligence -- emotional, social, spiritual, intrapersonal, bodily, musical, and yes, even moral," says Bruce, whose latest book is Discover True North (McGraw-Hill, 2004).
Bruce, who has written several best-selling books on human behavior and performance, says if you have low self-worth, chances are good one or more of your intelligences are also low.
"No one on this Earth can talk you into feeling good about yourself," says Bruce. "That is a choice that only we can make about ourselves."
The way Bruce sees it, every choice people make requires them to activate their minds and therefore their intellect, to tap into a wide variety of unique intelligences-like what Bruce calls Choice Intelligence, or CQ (choice quotient).
In Discover True North, Bruce argues choices are not accidental discoveries. Rather, they are the brain in action, consciously making decisions that are a direct reflection of self-esteem.
"Each of us is the product of our own choice-making intelligence," Bruce says. "You will always attract to you the things you 'choose' to feel worthy of whether that be people, opportunity, or health."
Bruce deems the CQ the most powerful connector of our intelligence to our self-worth, good health, and ultimate happiness, and that the lack of it can easily sabotage intellect and ultimately self-esteem. That clears the path for depression, anxiety and other debilitating disorders that keep people from discovering their greater purpose, competencies, and talents, which Bruce labels a person's True North.
"If you use the American gross domestic product as a primary measure of prosperity in this country-although it has actually doubled in the last three decades, the proportion of our population that describes itself as sad, depressed and anxious has skyrocketed," notes Bruce. "What we think about ourselves is encoded into every cell of our body. We must understand we can never separate our brain from our body."