Most people enter this world carrying bountiful levels of self-confidence, but it is often eroded over time due to the experiences we have during our childhood. Low self-confidence develops from low self-esteem and self-worth.
If you haven’t laid the foundation of self-confidence during childhood you can increase your levels of self-confidence with life experiences and some personal development work.
Let’s take a closer look at the meaning of self-confidence.
What is Self-Confidence?
The word confidence means to have a sense of certainty or truth about something. Are some people born with it? Being born with a foundation of self-confidence is normal. We all start with a foundation of self-confidence. Think about how children are confident enough to demand what they want from their parents or friends.
Sadly this is often destroyed by experiences that undermine them, usually because of their treatment by authority figures such as their parents, relatives or teachers.
Restoring belief in one’s self or self-confidence does not happen overnight. It takes place through a series of exercises or experiences that feed your feeling of self-worth. These exercises are not a one-time occurrence. They must be repeated with consistency and commitment to undo the damage that has been done to your innate self-confidence.
Let’s take a look at five ways to boost your self-confidence.
Practice Positive Thinking
Nothing builds self-confidence like positive thinking. Positive thinking enables you to believe in yourself and your ability to reach your highest potential. Positive thinkers are optimistic about the world, other people and especially themselves. If you find yourself thinking negative thoughts, consciously shift your attention to something positive. The more you do this, the more you train your brain to naturally think positively.
You can read more about how to become a positive thinker in my previous article Become a Negative-Thinking Turnaround Expert.
Be Comfortable with Your Strengths and Acknowledge Your Weaknesses
You might think that a person with self-confidence is highly intelligent, rarely wrong, and without any faults. However, this is not the case. Confident individuals know their strengths and over time, build on those strengths, but they also recognize their weaknesses and seek help when necessary. They do not allow arrogance or pride to hold them back.
Become a Risk-Taker
This next suggestion might feel counterintuitive, but you must become a risk-taker. Stepping outside of your comfort zone and trying new things can be a great confidence booster. Risk-takers learn to thrive under risky situations and gain exposure to experiences and opportunities that they might not have otherwise encountered. This exposure to new things and new accomplishments is an excellent way to boost your self-confidence. Treat these risks as challenges and new opportunities.
Practice Setting and Achieving Goals
There’s nothing like the feeling of setting and achieving goals. Start small and slowly work your way towards doing something big! Take the time to establish SMART Goals and over time, slowly tick off those milestones as you conquer each one. To help you with your goal setting, take a look at my article Setting Goals – Why Size Matters and the Goldilocks Factor.
Plan for Success
Visualize your success. You will never get there if you cannot see it. Ignore the negative thoughts and the negative voice within that may be telling you that you cannot achieve great things. Many refer to it as the “inner critic.” Work on quieting that inner critic. He or she can become a distraction.
While you visualize the achievement of your goals, also imagine how it will feel to have succeeded. This will accelerate the manifestation process and will support you on your path to success.
My article How to Use Affirmations and Visualization to Manifest your Dreams will help you on your path to achieving your goals by quieting that inner critic and boosting your self-confidence so you can achieve the success you really want.
In Summary
Self-confidence requires us to believe in ourselves. This belief means stepping outside of our boundaries and taking a risk that enables us to learn from it and celebrate our successes. Building your self-confidence is well worth any effort it takes as it can really open a whole new world, not only in your own perception but how others perceive you. It is also the key to your ultimate success.
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Love this and truly sound advice. This ought to be something everyone should read about as I believe every person at one point in time would have experience self esteem issues. Personally for me, I would say I have surely become more aware and confident of myself the older I become. Time somehow gradually seem much too valuable to be wasted on negative moments and people.
Jay Liew recently posted…103 Motivational Self Confidence Quotes For Confidence Building
Thanks for wonderful article. I agree with Jay’ s comment that everyone at some point struggles with self-esteem. What resonated with me most was how you said to “visualize your success.” The research on benefits of visualizing is strong. Also, I appreciate your emphasis on being comfortable with your strengths and acknowledging your weaknesses. We all have both.
David Willden recently posted…Can You Be the Designer and Builder of Your Life?
Thank you, David. Yes, visualization is very powerful and focusing on the outcome you want to manifest rather than getting stuck in the problem.
Hi Jan, Very good article. No mater what causes low self-esteem and self-confidence your 5 way of helping will make a great improvement. I really enjoyed the read. Thank you.
Really a Great Article.
Hi Jan, very much inspiring post. All the points are wonderful and motivational. Thanks for sharing🙏
Thanks for sharing!