Self – Confidence

Not even I was born with an abundant supply of self- confidence.

Recently someone asked me where I got my energy and abundant supply of confidence from. It got me thinking as clearly what people see on the outside clearly isn’t what I always feel on the inside. So here’s to a bit of vulnerability..

I certainly don’t consider myself a confident women, there are things I’m confident in doing and exploring but I do have periods of withdrawing and the need to recalibrate. It’s an area that I am always working on.. are you?

Despite how you may see me I am an introvert, this always comes as a shock to some but I know firmly my social limitations – I get a real buzz from delivering live workshops and trainings with my energy levels high but trust me I need a nap after.

I’d rather take to a stage and speak to the masses then work a room in a social situation – does that resonate with you?

Knowing who we are can really help us to understand how we perform at our best and what is likely to trigger our stress response. For a long time I never understood this. I was performing on what felt like a knife edge.

Those who seem to have incredible confidence have worked extremely hard for years to build it. To some it comes more naturally than others and that’s the human factor of personality.

Self-confidence is something that you learn to build up and maintain because life tends to deflate it. Along with the outside influences that can affect our self-esteem, we also have to deal with the inner critic that is continually telling us we aren’t good enough. Self sabotage is a whole mind-field of its own.

So here are five things that you can do to help boost your self-confidence:

Question Your Inner Critic

Some of the harshest comments that we hear come from ourselves, via our inner critic. When your inner critic becomes overactive and inaccurate, you may start to suffer from low self-esteem. To help combat your inner critic, look for evidence to support or deny the things that it is saying to you. Find opportunities to compliment, congratulate, and reward yourself, even for your smallest accomplishments.

Do Something Every Day That Scares You

The best way for you to overcome fear is to face it head-on. Getting out of your comfort zone and facing your fears will help you to gain more confidence. By doing something that scares you every day, you’ll start to gain confidence from those experiences and will quickly experience a boost in your self-confidence.

Visualise Yourself as You Want to Be

Visualisation is a powerful technique that requires you to see a picture of yourself that you are proud of, in your mind. When struggling with low self-esteem, we often have a poor perception of ourselves that tends to be inaccurate. Practice visualising a beautiful version of yourself achieving your goals, to help you boost your confidence.

Set Realistic Goals

Setting unrealistic goals that are difficult to achieve will only cause you to become discouraged about your abilities. Start by setting small goals for yourself that you can reach quickly. Once you’ve achieved some success, you can move on to harder goals.

Affirm Yourself

The trick to making lasting changes it to shift the way you view yourself. We tend to believe what we tell ourselves, so repeating positive affirmations daily will help to boost your self-confidence.

To get your mind to accept the positive affirmations quickly, phrase them as a question. Our brains are wired to seek answers to a question, without analysing if the question is valid. Every day we are bombarded with numerous elements that can threaten our self-confidence, with these tips you can start to take charge of building yourself up and boosting your self-confidence.

If you are experiencing anxiety and feeling that you have lost all your self-confidence then your pesky mind is playing games with you to keep you safe – try the above, take small steps each day for the next 14 days and notice the change.