Ways to boost your self-confidence

Being confident reflects a strong sense of your own worth and abilities.

Being able to build self-confidence can make a huge difference to your life, helping to open the doors of opportunity.

Just imagine what you could do if you had a bit more confidence! We have listed some ways to boost your confidence that will definitely help you attain your goals much faster.

Use words

Use your language carefully, phrase things positively and actively.

An example of this would be a saying: ‘With some clarification and research I will understand this topic’ Vs ‘I am so confused, I’ll never get this’.

Dress the part

Dressing the part goes a long way to making you feel confident. When you look good, you feel good! So, for an instant confidence boost: shower, choose something comfortable to wear, spray on some perfume and do your hair.

It is amazing at the difference that doing these very simple things will make to your day.

Act as if

Act with the confidence that you wish you had, even if you don’t feel it.

The amazing thing about this little bit of fakery is that the longer you do it, the more you actually become confident. So, speak up, stand up and take a leap!

Put it in perspective

Make an ‘I’m awesome’ list of all the things that you are good at and all of your accomplishments. Use this list to shut off your negative self-talk.

Keep your negativity in proportion, and always remember that the negative thoughts you have don’t necessarily represent the truth of a thing or situation.

Fake it till you make it

Studies have found that certain postures and facial expressions actually make us feel certain ways. Power poses can actually release certain chemicals in our body that make us feel more confident and happy.

Power pose: Stand up tall with your legs hip width apart, reach your arms in a wide ‘V’ above your head and stretch as wide and far as you can.

The aim here is to take up as much space as you can. In general, standing and sitting tall with good posture will also help you to feel confident, so for an instant boost, just straighten up!

Go for a run

Exercise releases endorphins and a bunch of other feelgood chemicals.

So, if you are in need of a confidence boost, or are after long-lasting confidence, put on your sneakers and go for a walk or a run, or you could just have a good dance in your lounge room.

Take risks

If you want to be confident you need to take risks and step out of your comfort zone.

Once you take the step and realise that you are capable, you grow more confident.

So, take a risk: ask for a challenging job at work, make a new friend, learn something new, you will be surprised at the difference it will make to your confidence levels.

Be yourself

Nobody is born with self-confidence issues. Low self-esteem is something that we learn by measuring our value through external factors like the jobs we have, the grade we get, how we look and the opinions of others.

Real confidence comes from truly believing you are worthy, just for being your wonderful self.

When we are confident with ourselves, none of these external factors matter.

As for a popular saying ‘Today you are You. That is truer than true. There is no one alive who is You-er than You.

Shout loud, ‘I am lucky to be what I am!’ So, the key to rock-solid confidence is to stop attaching your value to things like your job, bank account, looks and what other people think about you. Instead, base it in who you are as an individual.

Focus on your special traits, on what makes you who you are.

Trust your abilities

When you trust yourself and your abilities, confidence is the result.

Consider this: You are asked to throw a set of keys to your friend from a metre away. The chances are pretty likely that you will throw them without thinking, and that the throw will be good enough that your friend is able to catch the keys.

Now, imagine the same scenario but that you are in the middle of a large football field, stands packed with people, and you have to throw the keys from a metre away, so your friend catches them. Also, there is 2 million rupees on the line.

You have exactly the same skill set in both scenarios, the difference is in the second one is that you are likely to stop trusting yourself and to start second guessing, whereas if you just trust yourself and throw the keys, you would find that 2 million in your pocket pretty quickly.

So, from today, make a list of your skills and start trusting in your abilities, regardless of the circumstances.

Be prepared

Nothing saps confidence more than being underprepared. So, if you want to have confidence, make sure you are prepared for the tasks which you have to undertake, whether that is an upcoming presentation, a test, or a new job. Once you are prepared, ditch the worry and just ‘throw the keys’.