How To Be More Confident

Ever seen someone walk into a room and it feels like they own the atmosphere? People come forward to give a speech and the moment they open their mouths, you’re sold. That’s what confidence looks like.

Sometimes we all feel a little out of place, but many people have mastered the art of being cool, calm and collected no matter how they feel inside.

Confidence is important for everyone at any point in their lives otherwise self-doubt creeps in and everything comes crashing down after that.

Whether you are a first-time business owner, a new mom, you’re at a new school or at any phase of your life, you need to have confidence in your person, actions and decisions. Read on to find out how you can be more confident in your endeavors. 

Know yourself

The first solution to gaining more confidence is to know yourself. Being confident starts and ends with you. Remember, everything you do and all the decisions you make as you through yours are yours.

So when making a decision whether it is a small decision as to what to wear or a big business decision, remember that you are at the centre of the choice and you are capable of making it.

That will definitely give you a boost of confidence knowing fully well that your decisions are yours. 

Eliminate negative self-talk

Now the reason people feel less confident is that somewhere in their minds, they are telling themselves they are not capable or they’re not worthy. When those thoughts come, boost your confidence and self-esteem by reminding yourself how great you are doing and how far you have come.

For instance, if you are about to give a presentation in a room full of people and you are feeling less confident, remind yourself how much you worked hard on the presentation and tell yourself that you can do it.

Talk yourself out of all your doubts and you’d be surprised how effective positive affirmations can be when you are feeling less confident.  

Face your fears

Whenever I’m in a scary situation, I just ask myself what’s the worst that can happen? I start to go over the worst possible scenarios and start to proffer solutions to them as best as I can. That way, when any of my hypothetical situations happen, I’m not caught off-guard and I’m better able to manage the situation.

If you are constantly living in fear then it is going to affect your self-confidence. The more control you have or make yourself believe you have, the more confident you seem. What’s more, most things we worry about do not even happen. It’s just our mind’s way of keeping us in a box.

Face your fears today. If it doesn’t happen, great! If it does, then you would have seen it coming and you’d take it as a learning experience. 

Identify what is making you lack confidence and what you can do to increase your confidence

In order for you to move from who you are to who you want to be, you must identify the reasons for your lack of confidence. Come up with areas that you don’t feel confident in. Is it your new business, career, job, or body? It gets frustrating if you don’t know where you are lacking.

Think about where you are lacking confidence and why you feel that way. You can then work on how to improve yourself in those areas and thereby improve your self-confidence. For instance, do you struggle with body image and you feel like clothes don’t feel good on you?

The solution can be as simple as changing your style of dressing and wearing clothes that fit your body type more. If you struggle with fitting into your professional role, getting to know your co-workers outside of the office setting may help ease the tension you feel.

Of course, it is not going to be easy but building your self-confidence can be done. You just have to figure out what your trigger is first. 

Don’t compare yourself to others

One of the most common reasons people lose self-confidence is that they compare themselves to others and try to measure up. The harm in this is that no matter how much you try, you can never be somebody else. That’s the beauty of being human.

We are all different and we all have things we are great at – our unique selling points and other things we struggle with and there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that. When trying to measure up with others, you may feel as though you have failed as you are not as good as they are.

One thing to note is that nobody is perfect. Everyone has areas that they struggle with, they just cover it up with other areas that they are fantastic at. Instead of comparing yourself with others, think of whatever you can do to improve yourself.

Get new experiences and skills

New experiences help to give a better lease on life. It gives a different perspective on life and this is the reason why some people may feel absolutely at ease with their environment because they are not in their heads all of the time.

When you start to lose confidence in yourself, acquiring a new skill or new experiences can help you phase out of it. It is noteworthy that for this to work, you must be open-minded and be willing to learn new things.

As you learn and get better, your confidence will naturally grow. If you can afford it, take trips, attend conferences, fun holidays, Read books, listen to podcasts and so on. There are so many resources available on the internet that you can gain from. 

The take-home

Improving your self-confidence can be of great benefit to you. It can give you the courage to try out new things, motivate you to be better and help you feel better about yourself.

Always remember that you are important and up to the task no matter what it is. Don’t compare yourself to others and try to truly experience life instead of letting your fears control you.