Turning on confidence, turns on success. – DeLores Pressley
I believe that confidence is the cornerstone to success. I don’t mean that you won’t have bad days or times of self-doubt, but I do believe that you need to have faith in yourself to accomplish the things you set out to do. But confidence isn’t always easy, and you’ll have to work at it throughout your life. You may have a lifetime of low self-esteem to conquer before you can stand up and declare that you love who you are. But you also have to be careful not to let your confidence turn to arrogance. If you really want to improve your self-confidence and take your accomplishments to the next level, here are some ways you can get started.
1. Continue learning. The more you know, the more you feel comfortable sharing your skills and knowledge with the world. You’ll never know everything, but education can be the key to unlock your confidence. You don’t have to go back to college, but you can take continuing education classes in your community or online. Some online learning is even free.
2. Volunteer in your community. There is quite a bit of evidence that helping others makes you feel a lot better about yourself. Volunteering is good for both your mental and physical health. Choose a cause that is important to you and give yourself ample time to contribute to it in your personal life. The feeling of good work should never be taken lightly.
3. Celebrate your accomplishments. Self-doubt is a personal villain. It’s what makes you wonder whether or not you really earned your accomplishments. Force yourself to recognize them when you achieve something. Rather than telling yourself you could have done better, push that thought out of your mind and focus on what you did.
4. Stop beating yourself up. Hand in hand with celebration is the need to stop punishing yourself. There are always things that you could do better, but that doesn’t minimize the things that you did well to begin with. When you feel that internal dialogue start up, distract yourself with learning, volunteering, or celebrating.
5. Exercise and eat well. Physical health is an important component to strong mental health and self-confidence. Don’t neglect your exercise and healthy eating routines just because you’re feeling a little less than confident. These will help you stay on track and keep at it. It will also boost the happy hormones which will make self-confidence come a little easier every day.
6. Ask for help. Finally, the best tool you can have when it comes to boosting your self-confidence is smart, intelligent, helpful people around to support and encourage you. Don’t believe for a minute that you need to do this on your own. The right network is extremely important so build a team that elevates you while you help elevate them.
Do you let self-doubt creep in where it doesn’t belong? What can you do in your life starting today to boost your self-confidence?
