One source of a poor self-concept is an inaccurate self-perception. Such unrealistic pictures sometimes come from being overly hard on yourself, believing that you're worse than the facts indicate. By learning to take a realistic view of yourself, it will be possible to see whether you have been selling yourself short. Of course, it would be foolish to deny that you could be a better person than you are, but it's also important to recognize your strengths. An unrealistically poor self-concept can also arise from the inaccurate feedback of others. Perhaps you are in an environment where you receive an excessive number of downer messages, many of which are undeserved, and a minimum of upper messages. We've known many housewives, for example' who have returned to college after many years spent in homemaking, where they received virtually no recognition for their intellectual strengths. It's amazing that these women have the courage to come to college at all, so low are their self-concepts but come they do, and most are excited to find that they are much brighter and more competent intellectually than they suspected. In the same way, workers with overly critical supervisors, children with cruel 'friends', and students with unsupportive teachers all tend to have low self-concepts owing to excessively negative feedback. If you fall into this category, it's important to put the unrealistic evaluations you receive to attention and then to seek out more supportive people who will acknowledge your value as well as point out your shortcomings. Doing so is often a quick and sure boost. If you ______, you 'sell yourself short'.