Self-confidence isn’t something that most of us are born with. It’s not like we come out of the womb with a 100-watt smile and charisma for days. If you want to truly believe in yourself and develop real confidence that lasts longer than a stick of gum, you’ll have to put in the work.
But it doesn’t have to be as complicated or time-consuming as you might think.
Often times we think that we need to follow complicated strategies or go into therapy for months to build the self-belief we actually need to succeed and move forward in life.
That isn’t true at all. Here are 5 proven ways to stop feeling shy and awkward and boost your self-confidence and feel great about yourself.
5 Tips To Help You Boost Your Self-Confidence And Self-Esteem
If you’re struggling with your self-confidence, then it’s time to take control of your self-confidence. Use these tips whenever you need a pick me up or you’re feeling down in the dumps. Don’t just read them once and forget them.
Confidence is a tool that we need in our daily lives because it enables us to learn anything, respond to anything, react to anything and achieve anything.
1. Improve Your Posture
I honestly never realized just how much our posture (the way we sit, stand and carry ourselves every day) affects the way we feel. If you’re constantly sitting with your shoulders slumped, having your head down while you walk or sitting in a way that makes you seem smaller that sends powerful messages to your brain.
You’re basically telling yourself that you feel defeated, down and discouraged because our brain takes cues from our body. Don’t believe me? Imagine that you’re sitting in the front row of a wrestling match and the champion comes out. His back is hunched and his feet are turned facing each other as he stands before the crowd.
Based on what you’ve seen so far, would you believe that this person was truly a champion who was going to win the match? Of course not! You’d probably hide your eyes because this guy would presumably be in store for a big whooping.
Confidence works in the very same way. If you want to boost your confidence then you need to improve your posture. Put your shoulders back. Lift your head up. Open your body up and show the world that you’re ready to take it on with a vengeance. Before you know it your brain will start to realize that you feel powerful and it’ll start firing the signals you need to feel great about yourself.
That’s why doing power poses before an important meeting or interview is so important. Like wonder woman, choose a pose that makes you feel powerful and practice it for 5 minutes every morning as you stand before the mirror.
You’ll soon realize that you approach the day in a completely different way than you would before. For good measure, put on a smile or add a happy chuckle or two.
2. Use Positive Self Affirmations
When the bible said that life and death were in the power of the tongue it wasn’t kidding. The things you say to yourself, whether they are good or bad, directly affect your level of confidence.
Most of us spend so much time telling ourselves everything we hate that it’s no wonder our self-esteem and confidence are so low. Instead of constantly putting yourself down, try affirming yourself.
Use positive self-affirmations to change the way you feel about yourself now. There might be something about your appearance that you dislike so spend a few minutes each day talking to yourself out loud.
Don’t tell yourself that you can’t do this. Tell yourself that you can do any and everything you put your mind to. Use these self-affirmations every time you need a quick boost. Before you head to a networking event tell yourself that you are great at networking and you can make amazing connections.
If you’re about to call up a client, tell yourself that you’re great at closing sales then go ahead and close that sale.
To get your brain to start accepting these powerful I am statements even more quickly, instead of questioning yourself all the time asking “Why am I so bad at running this business?”, tell yourself that “I am really good at running this business”.
3. Question Your Inner Critic
I mentioned the term inner critic in my previous blog post where I discussed 5 ways to overcome self-doubt. If you haven’t gotten the chance to read it, you can take a look here. Trust me, it’ll be worth the time.
Our inner critic can be our biggest enemy if we allow it to be. This voice inside our head tells us everything we cannot do and keeps reminding us of every time we fail.
Boosting your confidence happens when you start questioning your inner critic and the validity of the claims it makes. For example, imagine that you’re about to give a presentation in front of a large audience and you start feeling nervous. Soon your inner critic will kick in and start telling you of all the reasons you should go out there and give that speech.
Now is the time to question your inner critic. Ask yourself what evidence is there that you can’t give that speech? Has there ever been a time when you actually failed to do this? Does any evidence exist that would lead you to believe that this inner critic could actually be full of it?
Do this as many times as you have to and find all the reasons you need to prove your inner critic wrong because contrary to what you’ve been led to believe you can prove the critic wrong and you can do this!
4. Build Your Competence
Our level of self-confidence goes hand in hand with how competent we feel about a particular subject. If you’re an expert in accounting or networking with other business owners then you’re more than likely to feel more confident doing these activities. Am I right or am I right?
This then means that if we work at increasing our skills and abilities then we will also directly increase our confidence. So think about it, what areas in your life or business could you work on improving?
What are the specific skills that you would need to develop to become the best version of yourself? Are there any specific courses you need to invest in taking? Could there be a specific coach or mentor who could help you to discover the areas you need to work on in terms of your personal development?
Make it a point to invest in daily, consistent growth and development because an increase in your competence will directly increase your confidence.
5. Visualize Yourself As You Want To Be
Visualization is a powerful way to boost your self-confidence because it takes you from the present and puts you directly into the mind of your future self. I’ve been reading the book Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill for about a week now and the one quote that sticks out most for me is "what the mind can conceive you can achieve".
Visualization is a really powerful way to do this. Close your eyes and find a quiet place to sit down and think. Think about one goal you want to achieve and really put yourself into that train of thought.
What will it feel like when you achieve this goal? How will it improve your life for the better? When you struggle with your confidence this often happens because you have a limited view of who you are and who you have the potential to become.
Once we start realising just how much power we have in our mind and how far we have the potential to go, this completely shifts our perception of ourselves and shifts our level of confidence in the process.
Being Confident Doesn’t Have To Be Difficult
We struggle with our self-confidence because we don’t truly know what confidence is.
Confidence comes when you decide to like yourself and then act based on the decision you’ve just made. Confidence is also taking inspired action knowing that you will get a good result.
It doesn’t have to be rocket science and it doesn’t have to take up all your time. Use these simple, proven tips to boost your confidence on a daily basis and watch the magic that happens.
It’s not the lack of ability or opportunity that holds you back; it is only a lack of confidence in yourself.
Comment below and lemme know what you think about these 5 tips to boost your confidence! I would also love to hear ONE thing you do to boost your own confidence!