Even people who consider themselves confident have moments where they doubt themselves. They feel unsure of their abilities or fear taking risks for the things they want. The reality is that most people struggle with confidence at some point in their lives. While it may seem like an innate trait for some, confidence is something that can be developed if worked at.
If you wanted to run a marathon, you wouldn’t just lace up your shoes and show up on race day ready to win. You would have put in hundreds of hours of training to get to the point where you could complete the race. When building self-confidence, it requires practice, repetition and positive habits. It won’t happen overnight, however you can build your confidence to help you achieve whatever it is that you want. Many people experience that knowing sensation in their gut when their self-doubt starts creeping in. Self-doubt’s job is to protect you from pain or failure. It will sound the alarms whenever you are about to take a perceived risk, put yourself out there or do something you’ve never done before. When you listen to the self-doubt more than you believe in yourself, you can get stuck in a pit of fear, worry and inaction. How can you build a strong sense of self-confidence? What habits can you adopt that will help you feel empowered and capable in any situation? If you are ready to fully embrace the wonder of who you truly are, you can start by building your self-confidence. Here are a few tips, exercises and habits that you can use to build confidence and boost your self-esteem. Visualisation: If you can see it, you can be it. Think about what your perfect vision of success looks like. See it in your mind and include every sensory detail to make it as real as possible. Visualisation uses the power of your mind to create the version of yourself that you want. Positive Self-Affirmations: The words that we use have power. When we talk down to ourselves, we are reaffirming our insecurities and strengthening our self-doubt. By using positive affirmations, we can begin to change the way we think and feel about ourselves. Challenging your assumptions: Many of us have a script that we have been using for years that tells us that we aren’t good or enough or whatever it is we are insecure about. Have you ever taken a moment to challenge your scripts? The next time you hear yourself say you can’t or shouldn’t do something, ask yourself if that is really true. Feel the fear and do it anyway: Sometimes, the best way to deal with fear is to just do it! Taking yourself outside of your comfort zone every day helps your mind feel not so fearful. It doesn’t have to be big, because small things can add up to big results. Sure, feeling uncomfortable doesn’t feel comfortable! However the more you expose yourself to discomfort, the easier it becomes to handle the feeling in the future. Set yourself up for success: When you set impossible goals for yourself, are you really surprised when you don’t achieve them? Allow yourself to build confidence by setting small, more achievable goals at first. These wins will help you build momentum for your larger and more challenging goals. There are also simple ways you can build your confidence externally that will help you improve your confidence internally. Try a few of these this week and notice how it changes your perception of yourself.
How will you boost your confidence this week? |
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