When you lack self-confidence, it can be hard to build up. Not trusting your abilities and always judging yourself is a tough place to be. But you can learn to be more confident which will increase your health and wellbeing.
What is Self-confidence?
Not all people are born with self-confidence. It is something you need to build through life experiences. But this can be hard. Sometimes what you experience throughout life can be traumatic and negatively impact your confidence.
Confidence is a belief and trust in yourself to take control of your life or it may be just relevant to specific situations. For example, you may be confident achieving goals at work but have less confidence in other areas of your life.
Boosting your self-confidence will help motive you to achieve professional and personal goals. It also affects how others see you.
When you have self-confidence you:
- Are optimistic
- Take risks
- Can accept compliments
- Admit when you make a mistake and learn the lessons
- Do what you believe is right even if it is not popular with others.
How to Build Self-confidence
There are a lot of things you can do to build better self-confidence. Some are easy and others will take more commitment over the long term. But anything you do to continue building your confidence, will improve your life in the long run.
Face what you Fear
Face your fears. Stop delaying action until you have more confidence for it can become an excuse for inaction. Fears such as applying for a new job or asking someone out will only stop you moving forward if you do not push through them. You will never know if you don’t ever have a go. What is the worst that can happen? The best way to build confidence is to push through your fears.
Practice it. Start small. You may be afraid of doing something wrong or embarrassing yourself but try anyway. Self-doubt can push you to be better. And if being embarrassed or making a mistake is the worst that happens, there is something to learn. There is really nothing to lose. Do it to just see what happens. You may find it is not as bad as you thought. And every time you try, it helps you move forward and you gain a little more confidence each time.
Remind yourself of Past Successes
No matter how little confidence you have, there must be some successes in the past. Make a list of all the things you are proud of yourself for and your achievements. For example, doing well in a school exam, learning to make barista coffee or singing in public. It’s all relevant. Keep the list with you and add to it every time you do something that makes you proud.
Next time you feel anxious or unsure of a situation, pull out the list to remind you of past successes. Sometimes you can forget all those time you faced the world with confidence. Having that list is a simple way to relive past moments where you exuded confidence.
Set Goals
Set goals for your life with a plan for how to achieve them. Just set small goals to begin with such as planning a weekend away with friends or cleaning the house from top to bottom. This allows you to tick those achievements off a list which will boost your confidence to get things done.
Use positive visualisation to see the end result. It will boost your confidence when you can see how things may turn out. Visualising something over and over, can help you to believe it is your reality. Remember that what you focus on is usually what happens whether it is positive or negative. So next time you face a similar situation you know you can do it.
Avoid Comparing yourself to Others
How often do you compare yourself to others on social media? Or maybe you compare how much you earn with your friends. While making comparisons is natural, it does nothing positive for your confidence if you think others are doing better than you.
Research shows that comparing yourself to others, especially on social media where people only share positive snippets of their lives, can directly affect how you feel about yourself. In fact the researchers found that if affected people’s wellbeing and made them feel inadequate.
This makes it difficult to boost your confidence, if you keep comparing yourself to others. So stop. Remind yourself that doing this is not helping you at all. Everyone is different and you do not necessarily understand the full context of what you see.
When you feel envious of what others have or of their lives, make it a point to remind yourself of your successes, strengths and good points. Start a gratitude journal and write in it everything you are grateful for every day. This helps you focus on your life and how blessed you are.
Look After your Physical Needs
It is almost impossible to be confident if you are not taking care of your physical needs. Looking after yourself is positive action for your mind, body and soul. So when you do this, you will naturally feel more confident.
Here are a few things you should be doing to take care of yourself:
- Good quality sleep. Not getting enough sleep is not healthy for you physically or mentally. Put a healthy sleep routine in place to get the sleep you need every night. Each day you will wake feeling more optimistic and confident rather than tired and moody.
- Consistently exercise. Consistent exercise is good for building confidence. It improves how you see yourself and has he added bonus of keeping your body in shape.
- Eat a healthy diet. Eating junk food often is a good way to undermine your confidence. Instead eat a healthy diet. It has so many benefits including boosting your confidence and health. When you eat foods rich in nutrients, you feel stronger and have more energy and feel good about yourself overall.
- Practice meditation. Meditation helps you to live in the moment and shuts down the constant chatter in your head that negatively impacts your confidence.
When you care for yourself, you cannot help but boost your confidence.
Curb your Negative Self-talk
It is almost impossible to have confidence when you are fighting the negative self-talk inside your head. Negative self-talk undermines who you are. It steals your confidence and trust in yourself. It tells you things are “too hard”, “you are not good enough”, “you don’t have a chance so why try?” No wonder you are lacking self-confidence if this is how you talk to yourself. So is your self-talk negative or positive?
Where it is negative, turn it around. Positive self-talk has the capacity to boost your confidence, take on new challenges, push you to face your fears and have more compassion for yourself. It is time to treat yourself as well as you treat your closest friends.
But it takes practice to turn your negative self-talk positive. Next time you catch yourself talking down to yourself replace the negative with something positive about yourself. Here are some examples, instead of saying:
- “It’s too hard” remind yourself :”I only need to try”.
- “I always make mistakes” try saying “Making a mistake is okay as I have something to learn and will do better in future.”
- You hate something, use less aggressive words such as “I don’t like”.
Spend Time with Positive People
How do your friends make you feel? Does spending time with them make you feel positive or do you walk away feeling down? Do they accept your uniqueness and support you, or do they always judge you and have negative things to say?
Who you spend your time with will influence what you think and how you see yourself. They can boost your confidence or shatter it. So it is important to take notice of how others make you feel. If they make you feel bad about yourself and what you think, say and do, then it is time to let them go.
Spend time with the people who support and only want the best for you. Form friendships with other positive people to help boost your confidence. Remember, a positive attitude is a great recipe for building confidence.
Blissiree Pty Ltd
Self-confidence is vital to all parts of your life. When you lack it, this can hold you back in different parts of your life. It can also affect your relationships. A lack of self-confidence can have a negative effect on your health and wellbeing. Sometimes all it takes to boost your confidence is to make some lifestyle changes. But this is not always easy without help.
The Blissiree Pty Ltd is pioneering a new technique. A natural treatment that may help boost your confidence. It only requires for you to relax. Highly trained facilitators help you learn to become more confident. This may help you confidently take charge of all parts of your life. You may even notice an improvement after the first session. With some simple changes to your life, a new way of looking at things and with practice, you may learn to be more confident.
If your lack of confidence is holding you back, it is time to turn it around. Time to do something positive. Seek help. Take back control. You do not have to go through it alone. The sooner you get help, the sooner you can start taking good care of your mental health. And get back to enjoying life.
Reach Out
If a lack of confidence interferes with everyday life, reach out to our professionals. When you are not coping, contact us. We can talk to you about how to get your life back on track. But if you reach a crisis point, call us immediately. We are here to support you.
We can work with you over the phone, via Skype or in our Spa. Book in today for my special introductory offer of just $49 (private health rebates apply) so you may turn your life around. We aim to help you cope with any mental health challenges and the lack of confidence that affects your life. Our facilitators may help boost your confidence levels so you start enjoying life again.
Let me Help you Build Self-confidence
My Emotional Empowerment Program has helped many people for more than a decade. My aim is to help you naturally become more confident so you may be able to change. This may give you a new hope for the future. A future filled with happiness, peace and contentment in weeks not years so you can start living life to the fullest.
Book a free 25-minute telehealth consultation with Blissiree Pty Ltd founder, Terri Bowman. Or discover a seamless way that may help you manage your emotional and mental health by becoming a member. It will give you access to more than 100 audio programs that may help you to live an inspired life.
Check out my latest documentary— Blue Rain – PTSD The Silent Suffering. Follow the lives of four people as I work with them to improve their mental health. It will give you good insight into what it is possible.
What are you waiting for? Try us now. You have nothing to lose.