Simply put, self-confidence is the belief that you can do something well. It’s about trusting your own skills and acting accordingly. Self-confidence is that voice within you that tells you that you’re capable of achieving what you set your mind to.
Let’s face it… if you don’t believe in yourself, does it really matter if anyone else does?
That self-trust is what enables you to think, plan, and act towards success – whatever that looks like to you.
Being a self-confident person has been proven to be a hugely positive impact in one’s life. Self-confidence can boost your career and, as a consequence, your income; it can also have a favorable effect on your personal relationships, and it helps to maintain a healthy body and mind.
Although it isn’t hard to figure out the correlations between self-confidence and success in life, let’s explore this connection a bit more.
When you truly believe you’re capable of facing tough challenges, you’ll set more ambitious goals and do your best to succeed.
This helps to find (or create) career opportunities that favor your specific skill set. When it comes to finances, self-confidence allows you to disregard money-related myths, and enable you to know your own worth.
“Knowing your worth” is not only financial – it also applies to relationships. If you see yourself as someone who is deserving of meaningful, respectful relationships… that’s what you’ll look for and attract.
The link between self-confidence and health is easy to see as well. Confident people take good care of themselves. In fact, several signs of anxiety and depression are known to be consequences of low self-esteem and confidence.
To top it all off, self-confidence is what allows you to be yourself. It helps you to draw a healthy line between what others think and your own actions and beliefs about yourself.
You have the ability to live the life you want, so get a nice dose of self-confidence and do it!
After reading all this, self-confidence might seem like some sort of magical power, but it’s not (that’s actually the best part, right?).
Here are 5 tips to boost your self-confidence:
1. Get to know yourself.
Every type of self-improvement starts with knowing yourself a bit more. Maybe you already know that you need to increase your self-confidence; maybe you’re not sure.
If that’s the case, try this:
Take a few minutes to think about your life. Make sure there’s no distractions around and that you do this on a regular day when you are not feeling particularly stressed.
Are you happy? Which area of your life do you feel the most confident in? Which area might you be lacking confidence in? When would you say you’re at your most confident? What makes you feel insecure?
Don’t be afraid to have a deep conversation with yourself. It’ll give you a lot of clarity.
2. Get inspired.
The whole point of assessing yourself and admitting that you could use more self-confidence in certain areas of your life is to use it as motivation. Getting inspired can be the kick-start you need to boost your confidence.
Try this:
Think about at least 3 people you admire and regard as confident. Once you’ve got them in your mind, describe their personality with as many details as possible. Chances are some personality traits will overlap.
For example, those 3 people may have different careers or come from different backgrounds, or you may not personally know them. However, they all seem to be sociable, financially independent, witty, or go-getters.
What are the words that overlap in your list?
Once you determine how you perceive self-confident people, you’ll have a compass to follow. Since “self-confidence” is a broad concept, you’ll be better off by tackling some of its components, instead of aspiring to be super-confident all the time in all aspects of life.
3. Get rid of procrastination.
Procrastination makes us stay in our comfort zone. Forget about that. Sure, it’s a hard habit to let go of, but if you start little by little, you’ll soon start to feel your confidence levels rising.
Try this:
Conquer procrastination by doing small and simple tasks each day. Start with baby steps so you don’t get discouraged. Plan a budget for your next vacation now. Write down your grocery list now. Write a quick e-mail to a friend and set up a coffee date now. These examples may appear trivial, but your mind will get the message: you can handle things.
The trickiest part about getting rid of procrastination is to start. So just start without giving it a second thought.
4. Set a goal and get working.
It always helps to empower yourself. Now that you’ve looked for inspiration in other people, it’s time to look within you. What are your accomplishments? What are you really good at? If you don’t like to “toot your own horn,” think about what others have told you that you’re great at.
It’s important that you know your strengths because it’ll give you the confidence to get working on new goals.
Try this:
You can read and study about self-confidence all you want; but ultimately, what really matters is that you start moving. That’s why all our tips include some kind of action. Your next step is to set a goal.
We all have – at the very least – some amount of self-confidence. In many ways, it’s what keeps us going through the hard times. So pick something that you know you are capable of doing but is still challenging. Once you’ve got your goal picked out, think about how you can apply what you’re already good at to achieve it.
5. Get comfortable with your emotions.
We all feel fear, frustration, envy, and other negative emotions. It’s completely natural. However, part of boosting your self-confidence is to keep negative self-talk and bad attitudes to a minimum. Watch how you talk to yourself and how you react to people who disagree with you. Opt for kindness, and more often than not, that’s what you’ll receive from others.
Try this:
Each time you’re feeling blue or angry, take a deep breath and remind yourself that it’s okay to feel that way; give yourself some time and do everything you can to move on from that moment.
There’s absolutely no need to repress your emotions. Let yourself feel everything, but don’t let it ruin your day. Trust yourself and remember:
“Believe you can and you’re halfway there.”
-Theodore Roosevelt.
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