Self-Confidence is one of the key features of successful people, which is why you need to work on boosting your self-confidence and self-esteem.
Everyone struggles with self-confidence at some point in life, a study done in the UK proves that 80% of adults don’t feel confident in their appearance.
Related: How to Improve Your Appearance.
Fortunately, everyone can overcome a confidence issue with the right process, effort and determination.
In this article, we are going to cover the basics of self-confidence, as well as the 13 tips to improve your self-confidence.
However, if your lack of confidence is severe enough to interfere with your work, social life, or education, you should consider seeking help from a mental healthcare specialist.
Without further delay, let’s dive in…
What is Self-Confidence?
Self-Confidence is the feeling of trust in your skills, abilities, and general qualities as a human being, which comes from eliminating self-doubt about your intelligence, attractiveness, and energy.
Benefits of Self-Confidence
The benefits of self-confidence are so many, and they are mostly related to self-esteem and self-worth, some of the benefits of self-confidence are:
- Improves your mental health
- It gives a happier and more fulfilling life
- Controlling your fear
- It increases your self-worth
- Increase your social and work performance
- Reduce social anxiety
- Reduces stress
- A healthier relationship with your partner
Those are some of the benefits of self-confidence, and generally, the more confident you are in yourself, the more chances you have of achieving great things.
13 Tips to Improve Your Self-Confidence
1. Confront Your Fears
Fear is an important ingredient of our lives; it helps us stay alert and cautious which reduces the possible threat of danger or harm.
Without fear, you lose the alert system which protects you from many potential mental, emotional and physical pain.
However, in an attempt to protect you, fear might get in your way and stop you from growing and achieving great things in life.
That’s why the only way to overcome fear is to confront the things you are scared of.
For example, driving a car is far more dangerous than speaking in public, hence accidents can happen which can cause all kinds of injuries, but you might fearlessly drive a car while you feel terrified of speaking in public.
That happens because you overcome the fear of accidents when you learn to drive, the same rule is applied to the things you are scared for.
2. Recognize Your Insecurities
Recognizing your insecurities is the first step of overcoming them, the idea is not to dwell on unhappy thoughts, take it as an experiment.
Think of all the things that make you uncomfortable, or the things about you that you are ashamed of, it could be related to anything such as your job, school, your friends, your relationship, e.t.c.
This exercise will help you figure out the causes of your lack of confidence and give you the area of concentration when working on self-confidence improvement.
3. Turn Your Negative Though into Positive Thought
While this may sound impossible, there is a way to turn your negative thought into a positive thought.
As you sit alone thinking about your insecurities, adopt a habit of giving your thought an extra push.
For example, when you are thinking “that girl is never going to like me because of my unattractive appearance”, tell yourself “I am going to try anyway” when you give yourself this little push your thought will shift to what is the right way to approach her.
When you continuously refuse to focus on negative thoughts for a long time, your brain will adopt a negative thoughts habit naturally.
4. Get Rid of Your Negative Thought Triggers
Now that you uncover what your negative thoughts are, is time to remove anything that brings such negative thought from your life.
It could be a cloth that no longer fits your body, a cloth you bought for a marriage that never happens, a bad friend, images of the past, e.t.c.
It may be impossible to remove every negative thought reminder from your life, but try to kick away anything that can be kicked and make room for better things.
5. Stop Comparing Yourself with Others
We live in a world where everyone is exposed to things they wish to have, which makes it easy to start comparing yourself with others.
The moment you start comparing your appearance, your lifestyle, or your intelligence with other people you will probably start losing your self-esteem, because unfortunately however good you are at something there is someone better than you, and however bad you think you are, you are better than someone, that is the way of the world.
And just remember, people show their best moments to the world, whether on social media or even around friends, in most cases people hide their true self to appear perfect, and that has always been among the causes of mental illness.
Focus on improving your life not trying to be like someone or better than them.
6. Have No Fear of Perfection
In case you are always trying to be perfect, let me tell you a secret… You can’t, and nobody in this world can be perfect.
Have no fear of perfection because you will never reach it
If you feel everything has to be absolutely perfect without flaws, you will never appreciate yourself, and that negative thinking can cripple your self-confidence and keeps you away from moving forward.
Learn to put in your best in everything, and appreciate yourself for doing the best you can, and also remember, you definitely are better than someone.
7. Set Small Attainable Goals
When trying to improve yourself, set realistic goals and work to achieve them, that achievement will motivate you to achieve a bigger goal.
For example, if you want to be more attractive, start with learning to smile more often, when you are comfortable with smiling more, go for a new haircut, before you know it, you become more stylish and attractive.
If you try to achieve all your goals at the same time you are likely going to fail which can have a bad effect on your self-confidence.
8. Identify Your Talents
Do you have a talent for something? Yes, you have, if you don’t know your talents take some time and identify the things you are good at, it could be art, craft, dance, or something else.
Find something you are interested in and develop your skills around it, the better you get at something the more confident you get with yourself.
Developing your talents will help you feel unique and special which are among the important ingredient of self-confidence.
9. Own Your Strength
People’s brain is naturally drawn to negativity, people usually remember bad things more than they remember good things.
20 people might complement your new hairstyle but when one person says something bad about it you may care more than the 20 people who said a good thing about it.
As the old saying goes “you are your own worst enemy” people are more likely to be obsessed over their flaws instead of focusing on their strength.
Pay attention to your talents, advantages, and achievements, and remind yourself of all your strength and remember your strength are bigger than your weaknesses.
Once you start focusing on your strength, your self-esteem and self-confidence will boost higher than you imagine.
10. Accept Compliment Gracefully
When someone compliments you accept the compliment gracefully, don’t shrug it up or say something indifferent, that will show the person you are not confident about yourself and it also hurt your self-esteem.
People with low self-confidence has a hard time accepting compliment because they always thought the person giving the compliment is mistaken.
If you can’t accept compliments your self-esteem will keep going down.
11. Put Exercise in Your Daily Routine
Exercise helps your body release chemicals that can improve your mood, make you feel more relaxed, and reduce the risk of depression.
More: Anti-Aging Workout Routine.
Usually, the more relaxed, and energetic you are the more confident you feel, therefore, add exercise to your daily routine.
It doesn’t have to be a complicated exercise, start with the exercise you are comfortable with, it could be a bike ride, or taking a walk, or going to a gym.
12. Help Someone in Need
By helping the people around you, you get the feeling of importance and making a difference in other people’s lives.
When you make someone happy you get the satisfaction that increases your self-esteem and confidence.
Helping the people around you such as your friends, your family, or volunteering in community work is a great source of confidence.
13. Smell Great
How you smell plays a big role in your mental and physical health, in fact, your sense of smell can change your mood.
According to a study from the University of Liverpool, different smells affect both self-confidence and self-esteem.
Care a little more about your scent and boost your self-confidence.
Conclusion
Improving your self-confidence is just as important as your hustling for success, however, like any serious matter in life, it requires time and effort.
Use these actionable tips to improve your self-confidence and self-esteem, and start living a life of confidence and style.
Lastly, I hope you find this article helpful, if you do, subscribe to our newsletter below to never miss new tips and hacks to improve yourself.
You can also check out our recent articles on How to Build Confidence in Public Speaking and How to Look Handsome and Attractive as a Man.
That being said… Stay Fresh & Healthy!
