10 Best Tips to Gain Confidence and Boost Self-Esteem
Working on your confidence and self-esteem is one of the best things you can do for yourself. This is because the benefits will seep into your life, increasing your happiness and resilience, improving relationships with others, and creating exciting openness to try new things, but it will take patience and effort. Read on to learn the best tips to feel more confident.
What is confidence?
Confidence and self-esteem are the belief in your worth and trust in your abilities and talent. Many try the “fake it until you make it” approach, but this bravado of confidence is often performative, which can negatively impact true self-esteem over time.
How do you improve your confidence?
Like anything, improving your confidence levels comes down to practice and getting out of your comfort zone. Confidence and self-esteem is not a precondition to achieving your goals or doing things that feel good. Instead, it is a result. The precondition is creating small goals and having the courage to do them. You must practice courage day-to-day to reach your big goals and do those scary, new, or challenging things by placing your nerves to the side.
You will naturally gain confidence and self-esteem each time you do these things. You will be proving to yourself each time you're capable and strong. Simply getting out of your way, stopping comparing yourself to others and doing the scary things will boost your confidence levels.
Are you looking for some tangible ways you can prove this to yourself? Start with these 10 tips.
Accept Compliments
Do you notice when someone says, ‘great suggestion,’ ‘you look great’, or ‘Congratulations, well done,’ you deflect? This is a very common response for many people. Next time, rebel! When given a compliment, be gracious and open to positive feedback and praise through a smile and by saying ‘thank you’. Over time, you will feel more comfortable and start believing you are worthy of hearing these true things about yourself.
Challenge Your Negative Thoughts
You can improve your self-confidence and mental health by being kinder to yourself and your mind. You can do this by challenging the inner critic that tries to hold you back and makes you feel less than others. When you notice this inner critic creeping in, stop it and speak to yourself the same way you would to a dear friend, family or small child and try to replace negative self-talk with something positive.
Get Moving
When you get moving, your body naturally releases endorphins, aka happy hormones, which can turn a ‘bad day’ into a ‘great day’. Exercise helps with self-motivation, achieving your goals, and in turn, builds your self confidence. Exercise can be whatever you want—from dancing and walking to spin class, there is no ‘right’ way to get moving.
Give Back To Others
Research highlights that selfless acts for others can improve mental health, lower stress levels and boost self-esteem. Consider volunteering your time, donating to causes you believe in, or doing something thoughtful for a friend or neighbor.
Practice Gratitude
Mindful and gratitude practices help you appreciate what you have in your life and allow you to reflect and recognise what went well in your day. An excellent way to do this is through a gratitude journal, enabling you to reflect on improving optimism, satisfaction, and self-confidence.
Set And Follow Personal Boundaries
Setting strict social and emotional boundaries allows you to feel protected and good through relinquishing control, which is essential for gaining self-confidence. Boundaries and saying no to anything that will lower your self-confidence or energy helps you to feel strong and capable.
Celebrate All Your Wins
You deserve to celebrate your accomplishments, big and small! When you take the time to celebrate intentionally, you are allowing yourself to feel proud and notice your abilities, raising your self-belief and, over time, your confidence. You can celebrate by buying flowers, cooking a nice meal or walking.
Stand Up For Yourself
It's healthy to stand up for yourself politely and respectfully. It is good to be assertive, and in doing so, cultivates feelings of empowerment and inner strength you didn't know you had. On the other hand, if you allow other people to walk all over you, it will have a significant negative impact on your self-esteem.
Create a Like-Minded Community
Connecting regularly with your environment, community, hobbies, and other people is essential to building a strong sense of self and gain confidence. This can be done through spending time with like-minded friends, getting out every day to experience your neighborhood and additional resources like speaking to a life coach, listening to podcasts, and reading blogs or books that can help you to continue focusing on building self-esteem.
Do What Scares You
Getting out of your comfort zone is imperative to gaining confidence and boosting self-esteem. You should aim to get outside your comfort zone every day, and you will notice how much your confidence soars. This can range from travelling somewhere new to trying a new workout class, speaking to strangers, or trying new foods. Doing something like this every day will make huge improvements.
Increase Your Levels Of Confidence with Gareth Michael
Wherever you are on your journey of self-confidence, the good news is that there are several ways you can boost confidence and self-esteem. In many cases, it takes time, practice and patience to see results.
To help expedite this journey, join my Spiritual Coaching, where we will work together on creating a personalized toolbox for you with techniques that will transform you every day and help you discover new areas of yourself to improve self-confidence and self-esteem.
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