What is self-confidence? By definition, self-confidence is an individual’s ability to trust his abilities, judgment, and qualities. Psychology says that self-confidence is vital to a person’s overall well-being as it affects how you lead your life. Improving your self-confidence is the key to accomplishing your professional and personal goals.
Benefits of Self-confidence
Healthy self-confidence is beneficial in various ways- at work, home, and your relationships. Here’s why you need to improve your self-confidence:
- Better performance — Confidence prevents you from wasting your time and energy agonizing over why you’re not good enough. Instead, it pushes you to dedicate your time to perform better.
- Open-mindedness to try out new things — When a person is confident, he believes in himself. And when you believe in yourself, you’re more open to trying new things. Whether it’s applying for a new job, an art class, or sports lessons, you put your best foot forward, ready to take on any challenge.
- Healthy relationships — Self-confidence isn’t just about how you view yourself and your abilities. It also impacts your relationships with your loved ones as it allows you to understand them better. Confidence also saves you when it’s time to walk away when you’re no longer respected.
- Resilience — Confidence stops you from giving up. When life throws hard stuff at you, you get up, fight back, and regain your strength.
How to Build Self-Confidence
Do not compare yourself to other people
Comparing yourself to other people will never do you any good. Whether you compare how you look or how much you earn to other people, it’s never healthy. Feeling envious of others’ abilities is something that affects how you feel about yourself. And the more jealous you feel, the worse you’ll feel about yourself.
When you start to feel envious, look away and remind yourself how strong and successful you are. Stay grateful for all the good things in your life that other people are dreaming of. The best way to do this is by keeping a gratitude journal to write the things you’re thankful for.
Take care of your physical health and your body
Physical and mental health are both essential. Both of these things play a crucial role in your well-being. After all, it’s hard to feel great about yourself if your body is not in great shape and is constantly abused.
On the other hand, if you take care of your body, you also take care of your emotional, spiritual, and mental health, which eventually causes you to have confidence. Taking care of your body might mean that you need to consult a few professionals or visit a weight loss clinic. But you can also integrate the following into your lifestyle:
- Exercise
- Diet
- Sleep
- Meditation
Connect with positive people
The people around you also contribute to your confidence. Observe how your family and friends make you feel. Do they bring you down or lift you? Do you feel good about yourself whenever you’re with them?
It’s important to remember that who you connect with can influence your attitude, behavior, and thoughts about yourself. If a person makes you feel bad, it’s probably time to walk away and say goodbye.
Be kind to yourself
Self-confidence involves self-compassion. It’s the practice of treating yourself with warmth and kindness whenever you make mistakes. Self-kindness is your way of comforting yourself, which allows you to become emotionally intelligent and better at handling your feelings and emotions. With this, you enhance your relationship with yourself, making you more confident to connect with other people.
Studies show that self-compassion affects your confidence. So when you feel like you’re in a challenging situation, address the fact that you have limitations and that mistakes are part of life. You will be kinder to yourself if you accept your imperfections.
Practice facing your fears
The most practical way to build confidence is by facing your fears without doubting yourself. Stop setting things aside (like starting lessons in sports or traveling alone). You can do it.
Practice facing your fears that hinders you from becoming fully confident about yourself. If you are constantly scared of something, you will be embarrassed thinking that you will mess things up, but do it anyway. Convince yourself that you are bigger than your fears and prove it right.
Talk to yourself positively
Talking to yourself positively will help in developing self-compassion and overcoming self-doubt. Meanwhile, negative self-talk will only interfere in pushing yourself to the limit and achieving goals. So stay on the positive side.
When you feel like you are being belittled or that your opinions are not heard, remind yourself that other people’s opinions about you are meaningless. At the end of the day, your ideas and feelings about yourself are what matter the most.
Always remember that you are human. And believe it or not, you make mistakes from time to time. Take the essential lessons in your experiences in life and use them to build your confidence. Never think little about yourself and always face every tomorrow head-on.
