Needing a confidence boost? Whether you lack confidence in one area of your life, or struggle with this in general, check out six booster tips here....
Confidence looks different to every one of us and the way you view confidence will probably differ to the way say your partner, your friend, or your colleague views it. Before reading on, I recommend taking a couple of moments to reflect on what confidence means to you and consider the below questions:
On a scale of 1-10, how confident do you feel right now? (If 10 is super-duper confident)
What does a confidence level of 10 look like to you?
Are you ready to take your confidence to the next level?
The word confidence stems from the Latin word ‘fidere’ which means to trust, so being able to trust yourself is key to overcoming self-doubt and moving up your confidence scale. Confidence is about believing in yourself and your abilities. We all have our insecurities but letting these define us and our behaviours can impact upon our wellbeing. So how do we overcome self-doubt and build confidence? How do we move from say a confidence level of 4 to a 6?
Building confidence is like building a muscle, it takes time to grow. Although confidence does not appear overnight it is within reach and there are many strategies available that can help us. So, if you are lacking in confidence and want to enhance this, there are options available to you. Yes, it can be learned and practiced!
I often support women to implement confidence-boosting strategies and have shared some of these below. From personal experience, I have also used these strategies and have grown in confidence myself too across various areas of my life. I hope you find the following tips useful…
1. Use daily affirmations
Affirmations are positive statements that you repeat often to reinforce your beliefs or combat negative feelings. Affirmations can help us to re-wire our ways of thinking and can support us to develop a more optimistic mindset. They can help us to change the views we have of ourselves alongside supporting us to manage stress. I have included a few examples of affirmations below:
I trust myself
I can overcome any obstacle
I believe in my abilities and myself
I belong here as much as anyone else
I have what it take
Can you develop some of your own affirmations and repeat them to yourself on a daily basis? It can help to do these in front of the mirror! Personally, I repeat ‘I am strong and capable’ on a regular basis and this truly helps me to take on a variety of challenges each day! Affirmations can be very powerful and are a free and easy way to boost your confidence.
2. Surround yourself with positive people who build you up
Positive people are encouraging, optimistic, and are quite simply the best! They are the people in your life that help you to realise your potential, want to see you succeed, and love to share in your happiness. Take a minute and think about how your friends and family make you feel about yourself, do they build you up or bring you down? Other people can influence our thoughts and have an impact on our confidence levels, so make sure you reflect on how the people around you make you feel and choose your relationships carefully. Surround yourself with people who want the best for you and can help you to grow in confidence. It might be time to set some boundaries with the people who do the opposite.
3. Challenge your limiting beliefs
A limiting belief refers to a belief people have about themselves that constrains them in some way and can often hold them back from reaching their potential. They often come from a place of fear and negativity and can come in many forms, such as ‘I’m not good enough’, ‘I don’t deserve this’, ‘I don’t have what it takes’. Have you noticed these types of beliefs in yourself? The good news is you can say no to this negative self-talk!
From personal experience, self-awareness and perseverance are key to overcoming these beliefs. Once you become aware of your own limiting beliefs, it becomes easy to recognise them when they crop up, and subsequently challenge them. I first began using this strategy a couple of years ago, and now I am able to recognise a limiting belief when it arises much more easily. So next time a task comes your way, and you catch yourself thinking ‘I can’t do that because xyz’, stop yourself and consider whether or not this belief is actually true, and then turn this around and come up with a new belief which will serve you better.
4. Write a list of your strengths/accomplishments and reflect on these regularly
When was the last time you reflected on your strengths or your achievements? We can easily become focused on our weaknesses, or simply get bogged down with daily life meaning we don’t take the time to reflect on our accomplishments and strengths. Remembering our strengths can help to relieve anxiety and build confidence in ourselves and our abilities. I recommend taking a few minutes to write down at least 3 of your strengths, followed by 3 things you are proud of in life. If you are struggling to think of these, it can help to ask your friends/family what they believe your strengths are. Once you have written these down make sure you keep the list and look back on this on a regular basis (and keep adding to it). Reflecting on your strengths and past achievements can be a great confidence booster!
5. Still your mind through meditation
Meditation has several benefits including that it can help to reduce stress, improve sleep, increase focus, and enhance confidence!
Do you feel like you have a constant chatter in your mind, full of to-do lists and questions that need an answer? These swirling thoughts can be hard to escape from but practicing mindfulness and meditation can be a great way to get into the present moment and disconnect from unhelpful chatter. The repetitive thoughts going on in our minds can be silenced through meditation and we can also use it to choose what kind of thoughts we do and do not want to let in. There are several types of meditation to choose from, including mantra, movement, focused, and visualisation mediation; there are even guided meditations out there specifically designed to support with confidence building. Why not spend 10 minutes doing a little research and choosing one type of meditation that you want to try in the coming week?
6. Do something new and face your fears
Confidence is best achieved by ‘doing’. The more we do different things and push ourselves outside of our comfort zones, the more we grow and the easier things become. The first time you do something can be daunting and a little scary, but how good does it feel afterwards when you are able to say ‘I did it?!' It can be helpful to remember these feelings and reflect on such times if you need a little push when attempting something new.
Facing your fears sounds a little scary, but it does not necessarily mean doing a bungee jump, or going shark diving! Facing fears can come in all shapes and sizes, for example they could include doing something new with your child, trying a new exercise class, making conversation with someone you don’t know, or putting yourself out there for a new job or promotion. Whatever your fears might be, reflect on when you have overcome a fear in the past and challenge yourself to take a leap. Every time you do something new, it will boost your confidence level that little bit more!
I hope the above strategies show there are free, simple ways to grow in confidence. These are just some of the strategies that we can use to help build ourselves up and there are many others available too. Why not choose a couple of the above and embed them into your daily life and get the confidence boost you deserve?
If you would like to kick-start your confidence and receive more confidence building tips, and other wellbeing tools and resources, reach out today!
Ruth Collins
connect@wellbeingwithruth.com
30/10/2022