Self-confidence is nothing more than belief in yourself, in your actions and in the way you carry yourself. The trust you have in yourself and your judgments are what makes you confident. Even if you are right in a situation but lack belief in your actions, you will show low confidence in your actions and gestures.
What is Self Confidence?
Self means oneself and confidence means believing in yourself. Self-confidence means how well you think that the things happening around you are the consequences of your own actions. More than an internal trait, self-confidence can vary depending on several external factors.
The situation you are standing in, the people you are surrounded by in that situation, and even the smallest things like how you are dressed up can create a huge difference in your confidence in that specific situation.
How to be more confident?
There are several small changes in your lifestyle that can bring a confident “you” out. Let’s see what are these:
Never compare yourself to others
The worst thing you can do to harm your confidence is to compare yourself with others. It is important to compare yourself, this is true, but with no one else, just yourself ! one should always strive for a better self. Try to be a better version of yourself every single day, but that cannot be done by comparing yourself with others.
Every individual is different, by nature and by nurture and it’s better to accept this rather than making their abilities your life goal. Know your capabilities, accept them, cherish them, and work hard to get a better you every day.
Choose Your vibe Wisely
It is important to surround yourself with positive people because believe it or not but your surroundings define you. The people you talk to, the people you spend your time with and share your thoughts with eventually shape you and make you who you are.
People who demean you in subtle tones or make you feel less important can make you question your abilities. This doesn’t mean that you should talk to people who praise you all the time, rather be wise enough to see who genuinely wants you to grow and is pointing out your flaws to make you a better person.
Take care of your mind
In the rush of life, we usually keep running in the course and forget to take care of our minds. We forget the importance of peace while walking on the track of hard work. Our mind needs to stay calm while we are pushing ourselves to be the best we can be.
One should always have “me time” or time for oneself to regain their energies and understand their own thoughts and feelings. If you don’t give time to yourself to process your emotions, clusters of thoughts will keep piling up and eventually you will burst. So make sure you find what gives you peace and you keep engaging in those activities from time to time.
Take care of your body
Regular exercise can help you stay happy as it releases endorphins (happy hormones). Happiness can add to your confidence. Moreover, when you work hard on your body and get to a “desired shape” (any shape you feel comfortable in), you gain confidence in the way you look.
Small steps like staying hydrated, and eating the right meals can also add on to taking care of your body.
Be kind to yourself
In harsh situations, it is important to give yourself the benefit of doubt. Understand your emotions and thoughts and let them settle in with time. There is no need to rush to get better, it is important to know that things take time.
Positive self talk
Whenever you talk negatively to yourself, you set barriers to stop your abilities from reaching their maximum potential. Things like “can’t do this”, “looks difficult, maybe I should let it go”, can pull you down.
If at all you do this with yourself, you should immediately change those statements with positive reflections, rather than “I don’t think I can do this” switch to “What’s the harm in trying”. We hardly ever realize the importance of every single word we speak to ourselves.
Stop running from your fears
If you ever fear anything or anybody, you tend to avoid those situations or those people. Avoiding your fears will only increase the intensity of your fear further and nothing else. It is important to know what fear is exactly, fear is nothing but the feeling of facing some made-up situation in our mind.
The fact that you are not sure about what’s going to happen, makes you feel uncomfortable and gives a feeling of negative emotion, called fear. Facing your fears makes you feel confident as you start believing that you overcame a huge hurdle all by yourself.
Admit your mistakes and work on them
Denying what you do wrong will bring no good to your future self. Until and unless you acknowledge where you are going wrong in life, and accept it, then only you can take the key step which is to work on it.
Laugh without any fear or hesitation
Lots of underconfident people tend to feel shy and hide their original laugh or even smiles at times. One should never compromise on their laughter as it is a very key element of our personalities.
Whenever you feel like laughing, don’t feel shy or conscious about the way you laugh or smile. Know that smiles ARE beautiful, irrespective of your looks, teeth or anything else. Laughter or a smile is supposed to be an emotion that should be appreciated no matter what.
Be Open-Minded
You need to be open to the opinions and thoughts of other people too. If you are highly rigid with your perspectives and stop respecting others’ way of thinking, you won’t feel comfortable with others as you will never be able to accept them the way they are
Conclusion
These ways of gaining self-confidence might not show immediate results but will definitely help you be more confident in the long run. A personality that is appreciated by all and respected by others is definitely a confident one.
Overcoming fears can be difficult initially but just know that it is your mind making a big deal of a small situation, the situation is not as terrifying as you think. Most importantly, be yourself, Love yourself.
