Here at Be-Zing we think it is super important to build up your self-confidence, but what exactly can ‘self-confidence’ be understood as? A single definition of self-confidence is hard to pin down, but we think of it as a certain attitude a person has in regard to their own skills and abilities. An individual with high self-confidence has a positive view of themselves, and trusts in themself to overcome obstacles and face new challenges when necessary. Self-confident people know how to handle criticism and view their previous mistakes as learning opportunities, as opposed to occasions which have knocked them down or made them doubt in their own abilities. When someone lacks self-confidence, they often doubt themselves, and can feel a bit useless. Likewise, fearing failure and being hyper-sensitive to well-intentioned criticism are also characteristics of a lack of self-confidence.
Although having self-confidence is important, crucially your level of self-confidence rarely reflects your actual abilities! Self-confidence is a state of mind, and is often shaped by your past experiences, relationships or events. You’d be surprised at how easy and straightforward it is to raise your self-confidence when you’re feeling low. This blog features a little list of ways to boost your self-confidence, and is useful if you feel like you need a little uplift or even if you’re already on Usain Bolt levels of confidence!
1. Step Out of Your Comfort Zone
A way of measuring your self-confidence is by judging how comfortable you are in new situations. Your attitude towards your own strengths and abilities translates into how secure/insecure you feel when trying out something new or challenging. Once you start stepping out of your comfort zone, it is easy to start building self-confidence! The more you step out of your comfort zone, the more confident you become. Stepping out of your comfort zone doesn’t have to entail something scary and daunting, such as skydiving, but can be as simple as trying a new food, or saying hi to someone you’ve never spoken to before. Importantly, everyone has a different level of self-confidence, so what might seem easy to you, like joining a sports club, might be someone else’s worst nightmare! Likewise, make sure you’re progressing at a speed that you feel comfortable with! If you didn’t enjoy stepping out of your comfort zone, try a smaller change before reattempting it!
2. Stop Comparing Yourself to Others!
As the old saying goes, “Comparison is the thief of joy”. Comparing yourself to others is the easiest way to make yourself feel low, even if you’ve recently achieved a lot. If it makes you feel better, the person you’re comparing yourself to undoubtedly feels the same way about someone else! If you’re constantly comparing yourself to others, you’ll always be able to find someone you think is doing ‘better’ than you, regardless of how much you’re achieving. It is an endless cycle of comparison! The only person you should ever compare your achievements to is yourself, and this is important when keeping track and building on your own successes!
How to be kind to yourself
The worst part about comparing yourself to others is that it leads you to feeling bad about yourself and your own achievements. If you find yourself constantly looking at others’ achievements, a good tip is to look in the mirror and simply compliment yourself! Often it takes a different perspective, either hearing your achievement out loud, or looking at yourself whilst hearing it, to truly feel like you’ve made a positive change!
3. Take Care of Your Body
Your body is incredibly complex, and all its individual parts are relying on each other to make sure you’re operating at your maximum potential. If you’re not providing yourself with proper fuel or regular maintenance, there will be a knock-on effect on every other part of your life, even if it might not seem like it! Eating a balanced diet, practicing proper hygiene and regular exercise all might seem important for your physical state, but they are also essential for your mental state and cognitive abilities too. There is a huge link between a healthy, physical lifestyle and reduced anxiety which in turn increases your belief in your own abilities.
4. Positive Self Reflection
Most of us talk to ourselves throughout the day via an ‘internal monologue’ that is essentially your brain talking to you. How to talk to yourself determines how you see yourself, and vice versa. Negative thoughts towards yourself can be difficult to unlearn, so it is important to identify your pessimistic self-talk. Even if you make a small mistake and think, ‘I’m stupid’, your brain starts to visualise the worst-case scenario for every situation, which lowers your self-confidence. Once you’ve caught on to habits of negative self-talk, try to replace your pessimism with more encouraging thoughts – instead of ‘I’m stupid’, think ‘At least I know how to approach the problem next time’. Self-talk is a huge topic in itself, and one we’ll cover in another post, so stay tuned!
Self-confidence is such a broad topic to discuss, and unfortunately whilst it comes naturally to some, others find it much harder to discover! These four tips are just small ways to boost your self-confidence. Importantly however, don’t worry if these tips don’t work straight away! Everyone builds their self-confidence at different speeds, and over time, you’ll begin to notice that certain things don’t stress you out as much as they used to.
Your blog spreads optimism and brightness into my day. Thank you for sharing your uplifting words with such passion.