Greetings, friends!
Everyone needs confidence in themselves and their strengths. It helps you cope with complex tasks and make important decisions. A self-confident person in any situation behaves more calmly and with dignity, arousing the respect and sympathy of others. Lack of self-confidence, on the other hand, leads to serious problems. It is difficult for such people to meet and communicate, it is more difficult for them to establish a personal life, get a job and move up the career ladder. If you, reading these lines, caught yourself thinking that because of self-doubt you periodically miss the chances presented by fate, you need to urgently start working on yourself. Today we’ll take a closer look at how to build self-confidence by following a 10-step path. But first, let’s find out what confidence is.
What is self-confidence?
Confidence in oneself is a positive personality trait, implying an adequate assessment of oneself, one’s human qualities and abilities. In addition, a self-confident person realizes his self-worth. He firmly knows that he is worthy of certain benefits and will be able to obtain them by exerting sufficient efforts.
Immediately, we note that self-confidence should be distinguished from self-confidence. The second concept has a negative connotation, because it implies inadequate perception of their merits and talents. A self-confident person always overestimates his positive qualities and does not notice shortcomings. He loves to show off, embellishing his achievements, often makes unrealistic promises and lives by the principle of “Seeming, not being.”
Unlike him, a confident person adequately perceives his position in society , his achievements and talents. He does not strive to appear better, because he already knows perfectly well what and how good he is. This personality trait is directly related to self-esteem. If it is normal, then the person is usually self-confident. If it is underestimated, he often doubts his abilities, and if it is too high, he behaves overly self-confident.
How is self-confidence formed?
First prerequisites to confidence or self-doubt are laid in childhood. Parents, teachers, friends – the child’s self-esteem is influenced by everyone with whom he communicates and on whom he depends in everyday life. When his self-awareness is formed, he learns to look at himself through the eyes of others. He tries to understand how his loved ones evaluate him, what features, talents and actions they focus on.
The insecurity formed in childhood can often remain unchanged throughout life. However, this is not a reason to despair, because self-confidence can be developed at any age. Here are 10 proven tips that, when applied methodically, will help anyone to believe in themselves and their strengths.
How to develop self-confidence: 10 tips
Anyone, purposefully working on themselves, is able to significantly increase their self-esteem and develop self-confidence. Be prepared for the fact that this is a long process that requires a responsible approach. But if you are ready to work on yourself every day, these tips are guaranteed to help you become much more confident, more decisive and more successful.
1. Engage in self-development
Many people dream for a long time about how one day they will start working on themselves: they will go in for sports, will monitor nutrition and sleep quality, learn English, learn a promising language programming or master a program for working with 3D graphics. Weeks, months and years pass, and a dream that can be started to come true right now remains a dream.
Self-development is available to everyone. It takes effort, but does not require any inaccessible resources. Therefore, start working on yourself right now. After 2-3 weeks, you will feel the first results, and at the same time your self-confidence will increase.
2. Change the environment
Try to surround yourself with people who inspire you and give you strength. It is advisable to communicate less with those who themselves constantly demonstrate insecurity and doubt for a long time before each decision. Avoid toxic people who make an effort to lower your self-esteem and make you doubt yourself. There should always be strong personalities near you, confident and supporting you in all your endeavors.
3. Keep a Success Diary
The best way to increase self-confidence is your own successes and achievements. Therefore, a success diary can be a powerful tool along the way. For this, buy a notebook or notebook in a beautiful motivating cover and write down at least 5 of your achievements daily. You can highlight several areas of your life and write down your successes in each of them separately, trying not to leave a single column empty at the end of the day.
Read also: how to keep a diary of success?
4. Never envy
Envy is a destructive feeling that makes a person think that someone is unfairly lucky. Jealous people usually assume that success is the result of luck, good connections, and other external factors. But this is the wrong approach. Only the person who truly knows that his life depends only on him truly believes in himself. And envy reduces self-confidence, so this feeling must be completely eliminated.
5. Identify Your Strengths
Many of us do not know our talents or know but ignore them. For example, you may have the ability to draw, music, or dance. So why not start developing it? This is not binding. But watching your own success, you realize that you are a talented person. This will greatly increase your self-confidence and allow you to become more successful in other areas.
6. Work on your body
A slim and fit figure is not a sky-high dream. Each person, without serious health restrictions, can make his body more beautiful. And if you have not been involved in sports before, literally in 3-4 weeks of training you can significantly transform your body. And when you see the first results of your work in the mirror, it will give additional motivation and significantly increase your self-esteem.
You can often hear the phrase: “Appearance is not the main thing.” But how can a person who is unhappy with their appearance develop self-confidence? That’s right – to work on yourself and your athletic form.
Do not forget about simple ways to make your figure more beautiful. For example, start monitoring your posture. Keep your head straight and look forward. No need to push out your chest, just take a deep breath, straighten your shoulders, relax and lower them freely, remembering to keep your head straight. This will make your posture look beautiful and natural.
7. Use affirmations
This is a well-known technique used by many psychotherapists. Affirmations allow us to manage our attitude towards life and ourselves by literally reprogramming our perception and behavior. They are simple and unambiguous statements describing the desired mood, state of mind or character trait.
You can come up with your own affirmations to increase self-confidence or use ready-made ones, for example:
- “I bring any business to the end!”;
- “I am in complete control of my life!”;
- “I know what I’m striving for and I know how to achieve it!”;
- “I can get everything I want!”;
- “I get everything I do!”;
- “Today I got better than yesterday! ”
Keep in mind that affirmations should not be built on the phrases “I want” or “I am trying.” These must be confident and unambiguous statements, and then you will unknowingly perceive them as fait accompli, recognizing that you have all these abilities and character traits.
8 … Work on your image
Have you ever thought about how you look from the outside, how your friends and acquaintances perceive you, what impression do you make on strangers? Every person should work on their appearance, even not very worried about what they think about him. Girls should be able to correctly apply makeup and choose accessories, and men should dress stylishly and not forget to use deodorant. Your level of self-confidence is directly related to how others perceive you. Therefore, try to look stylish and attractive at all times.
9. Do not compare yourself with others
There is a well-known principle: “The only person with whom you should compare yourself is you yesterday.” Think about getting even a little better today. Go in for sports, improve, study – invest all your free time in yourself. And do not compare your progress with others’. If you don’t have a car or apartment, but your friend does, don’t waste time and emotional energy worrying about it. Set a goal and work to achieve it every day.
10. Communicate more
Relaxing with other people is a great way to boost your self-confidence. Try to expand your circle of acquaintances as much as possible, communicate more with unfamiliar people. You will notice that each person has their own complexes, fears and doubts. Realizing this, it is much easier to take control of your own fears and complexes.
In general, communication is both the main tool for developing self-confidence and the main field for realizing one’s self-confidence. But if now you are experiencing any difficulties in communicating and establishing contacts with people, do not worry. After all, communication is a skill that can and should be developed. And if you want to significantly improve your communication skills in a short time, learn how to build harmonious relationships – sign up for the online intensive “Effective Communication” from Wikium. This course will teach you to:
- Manage your emotions
- Communicate more effectively with your surroundings
- Overcome difficult emotional situations
- Manage conflicts
- Understand the feelings and thoughts of the interlocutor on a deeper level
- Build harmonious relationships
The author of the course is Oleg Kalinichev. Expert in Non-Verbal Behavior, Emotional Intelligence and Lie Recognition. Accredited trainer PaulEkman International. Managing Director of PaulEkman International in Russia (PEI Russia).
Online intensive “Effective Communication” will be especially useful:
- Entrepreneurs, managers, top managers.
- Those who work with clients, middle managers, freelancers.
- Anyone who is involved in raising children.
- Anyone who wants to improve their communication with others.
The training consists of 4 blocks:
- Emotions. Basics.
- Emotional resilience and emotional flexibility.
- Social efficiency.
- Building harmonious relationships.
How is the training going:
- Watch the video lectures
- Perform independent tasks to consolidate the material
- Participate in webinars and discuss difficult points
- Take the test on the material studied
- Complete the intensive course and receive a certificate
The cost of independent passage is 990 rubles, with a curator – 2,490 rubles. If you decide within 7 days that the course is not suitable for you, you will be refunded.
Conclusion
Self-confidence is the most important factor in personal and professional success. Only those who believe in their strengths are able to confidently move forward, without doubts and without looking back. If a person is characterized by self-doubt, he constantly misses opportunities and only watches how life with all its bright colors rushes by.
Fortunately, everyone can develop self-confidence. The 10 tips that we looked at today will help you with this. The main thing is not to forget or ignore them. You will have to work on yourself for a long time, but the first results can be felt in 2-3 weeks. It is very important to continuously move forward, without stopping or deviating from these rules a single step.
