Confidence is defined as “believing in oneself and one’s abilities.” Lacking self-confidence can impede success in many facets of our lives, including work, personal relationships, school, and social situations. Fortunately, there are ways to build confidence in yourself that you may not think of or know about. Being aware of these five proven techniques will help you become more confident tomorrow!
Here’s how to boost your confidence in 5 ways:
1. Increase Your Self-Esteem
Self-esteem is how much value you place on your own self-worth; the higher your self-esteem, the more likely you will be to feel positive about yourself (and thus act confidently). There are three main factors associated with building strong self-esteem: performance accomplishments, global trait ratings, and physical appearance.
2. Improve Your Physical Appearance
How you look does matter! Research shows that your physical appearance is the factor most likely to have an effect on how much confidence you have. If you are handsome or beautiful, well-groomed, and appropriately dressed for the situation, you will be more confident than if these things are not true. Visit your local General Dentist for checkup, pop into the Hair Salon et voilà!
3. Don’t Focus On Being The Best
The best at anything still make mistakes sometimes! While it may seem logical to believe that being the best at something would make you feel confident about yourself, research suggests this is often counterproductive. How can one feel great about their self-worth when they aren’t even perfect? Plus, focusing only on what you cannot do also limits your potential success in life.
Instead of aiming to be the best at something, aim to be as good as you can be.
4. Take Action!
One of the most effective ways to boost your confidence is by actually doing something that makes you feel proud and accomplished. By taking action and completing a task that we know we were able to finish successfully, our brains release chemicals that make us feel good about ourselves. These “feel-good” hormones give us a surge of positive energy, which will increase our self-esteem and confidence levels.
5. Visualize A Successful Outcome
The power of visualization is something most athletes know well. The more you visualize a successful outcome, the more likely it will be for that outcome to occur in real life. Effective visualization can work even better than positive thinking because our brains respond better to visual stimuli.
Here are some tips on how you should visualize:
- Imagine yourself completing the task successfully (while keeping all other aspects of reality in mind; this isn’t magic, just an exercise). Focus only on what it would feel like completing the task successfully and achieving your goal, not about how others may or may not react.
- Try different scenarios, like what obstacles might come up and how you would handle them. You can also try visualizing more than one outcome and decide which you see as most likely.
- Just like with taking action, the more time and effort that goes into the visualization of a successful outcome, the better it will work.
There You Have It!
For many people, these techniques may not feel natural, and thus they do not get used very often; if you keep trying to implement these techniques in your life, though, you will find yourself becoming increasingly confident about the things you need to do on a daily basis. You can even use some of these suggestions for how to be more confident when talking to others!