Branden distinguished his approach to self-esteem from that of many others by his inclusion of both confidence and worth in his definition of self-esteem, and by his emphasis on the importance of internally generated practices for the improvement and maintenance of self-esteem.

• Living consciously: the practice of being aware of what one is doing while one is doing it, i.e., the practice of mindfulness.
• Self-acceptance: the practice of owning truths regarding one’s thoughts, emotions, and behaviors; of being kind toward oneself with respect to them; and of being “for” oneself in a basic sense.
• Self-responsibility: the practice of owning one’s authorship of one’s actions and of owning one’s capacity to be the cause of the effects one desires.
• Self-assertiveness: the practice of treating one’s needs and interests with respect and of expressing them in appropriate ways.
• Living purposefully: the practice of formulating goals and of formulating and implementing action plans to achieve them.
• Personal integrity: the practice of maintaining alignment between one’s behaviors and convictions.