Five Ways to Build Confidence in Your Personal and Professional Life
Self-confidence is a feeling of trust in one’s abilities, qualities and judgement. Feeling confident in yourself comes down to more than shyness and it’s extremely important to learn to be comfortable in your skin. Self-confidence is important to your health and psychological well-being, so having a healthy level of it can help you become successful in your personal and professional life. If you are struggling with low self-confidence, here are five ways to boost confidence and improve your self-esteem.
Think Positively
Thinking positively is the ultimate key to building self-confidence. If you don’t think that you feel good, how can you feel it? Master the habit of saying positive statements or affirmations daily. You can tell yourself one thing you’re happy or grateful for at the end of each day and what made you proud. Doing this will keep you away from dwelling on the negative parts of what’s gone wrong and help you focus your energy on the good things.
Keep an Accomplishment File
Keeping a folder of your personal and professional accomplishments will help you to cultivate a positive attitude. Online, you can create a Microsoft Word file for accomplishments and send it to yourself as an email for storage purposes. Offline, you can simply use a file folder or large envelope to track your achievements, filling it with any interesting updates including letters, recommendations, cards, love notes or memos. Also, when you receive a “kudos” email from your boss, forward a copy or screenshot to your email account and tag it with a specific subject line like “My Brags”.
Master Body Confidence
Self-confidence can begin by simply changing your body language. Your posture and body language not only have an impact on the people you are surrounding yourself with but also on yourself. Do you feel anxious when meeting a new person? Maintain eye contact instead of staring at the floor or table. As well as this makes the other person believe that you are interested in the conversation, it also shows them that you are a confident person.
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Step Outside Your Comfort Zone
Since lack of self-confidence often manifests itself in shyness or anxiety, it is not uncommon to see people affected with this remain in the realms of their comfort zone. As a result, there is no exposure to new environments and facing new challenges. Your self-confidence is largely impacted by the experiences you face, so to boost it, you need to try the things that scare you – and do them frequently. It could be socializing, talking to an investor, a partner or venturing into public speaking.
Surround Yourself with Positive Minds Only
The people you spend time with greatly influence your thoughts and attitudes about yourself more than you can ever imagine. Pay attention to how certain friends or colleagues make you feel. Do you feel energized after talking to them? Are they constantly judging you or rejecting your ideas? Always surround yourself with people who love you and want the best for you.
Having self-confidence surely brings many benefits at home, at work and within your relationships. The positive effects could range from having better performance at work to building healthy relationships, openness to try new things, and resilience to name a few.