Many of us want to feel good about ourselves, so we want to have self-confidence. But there are other reasons why self-confidence is important. The more self-confidence we have, the more likely we are to take action.
Also, being sure of ourselves makes it more likely that we will succeed when we do act. This is because we are more likely to fail when we think we will. Because of all these things, it makes sense that we would want to feel better about ourselves. Here are some suggestions on how to do it:
1-Know your worth
Having confidence might be most important when you know what you’re worth. We are all good enough. Still, some of us deeply believe that we’re not worth anything. Maybe we feel like we’re disposable, unlovable, or just not good in some way. But that isn’t the case.
If this sounds like you, it’s possible that you were taught to think this way about yourself. You might have learned this from parents who were too hard on you, from kids who picked on you at school, or from a culture that said your gender, race, or other things made you less important than others.
Early messages about how valuable we are being taken to heart and become the foundation of what we think about ourselves. So, the longer we’ve had negative thoughts about ourselves, the harder it is to change them. It may take a lot of work to replace thoughts like “I’m not worthy” with “I am worthy” or “I’m just as valuable as anyone else.” Using positive affirmations like these can help retrain your brain to think you’re worth something.
2. Know your good qualities
Knowing that you have good qualities is another important part of being confident. This is more than just knowing you have value; it also means knowing that there are good, maybe even great, things about you.
We all do have good things about ourselves. But if we spend most of our time thinking about the things we don’t have, we don’t have much time left to think about the things we do have. If you have trouble with this, you might find it helpful to write down all the good things about yourself (things like humor, determination, creativity, etc…) Then you just need to change your way of thinking to try to think about these good things.
3. Know your strengths
Besides knowing our good qualities, it can be helpful to know what our strengths are. We can put ourselves in situations where we can do well if we know what these things are. When we use our strengths, we often feel good about ourselves because we know we’re good at something. This reminds us that we are good at things and have good reasons to be confident in our skills. So, write down your strengths and see if there are ways you can use them more often.
4. Be nice to yourself
We might also need to think more positively about ourselves if we want to be more confident. Many of us have a harsh inner critic that makes fun of us for even the smallest mistakes or for not being perfect. If this sounds like you, talking back to your inner critic can be helpful.
For instance, your inner critic might say, “You should have done better.” If you catch yourself being hard on yourself, try saying something like, “I did the best I could, and I’m proud of myself for how hard I tried.” This kind of self-talk can help you change the way you talk to yourself, which can help you feel more confident.
5. Do Your Best
Doing our best gives us a ready-made answer to our inner critic. When those negative thoughts start to get to us, we can tell ourselves, “I did my best.” And there’s nothing else we can do. When we do our best, but don’t try to be perfect or tell ourselves we could do more, we may be able to give ourselves a little more of a break and be more accepting of ourselves.
In Sum, even though it can be hard to build self-confidence, focusing on these key skills can help. These tips should help you get started on the right path to building your own self-confidence.
