Are you struggling with your confidence? Don’t worry: a lot of us are. It isn’t easy to be brave and outgoing and honest all the time, but there are tips and tricks to make things easier. Learn how to be more confident with these 5 tips.
1. Stop comparing yourself to other people
It is not uncommon, when standing in a room full of people, to measure yourself up against those around you. Humans are fairly competitive by nature, and sometimes this can be used to our advantage. We can also take it too far, though, and unknowingly make ourselves miserable in the process.
The quickest way to completely shatter your own confidence is to spend the majority of your time comparing yourself to other people. The truth is, no matter how good you are at something, there will always be someone better than you. In a nutshell, comparing yourself to someone else is pretty much guaranteed to make you feel worse.
You don’t need to compare yourself to someone else in order to feel good about your accomplishments. Learn to be proud of yourself for the things you do well, whether you do them as well as someone else or not. Everyone is different, and your success is just as valuable as any other person’s success. Try writing in a journal about things you are doing well and keep the focus on yourself instead of on others.
2. Make a list of qualities about yourself you do and don’t like
We all have traits and quirks that make us unique. Unfortunately, many people tend to view anything different from themselves as insufficient or wrong, and not all of them will refrain from telling you so. This can make you feel discouraged and singled out, which is not good for your confidence levels.
The thing is, it isn’t about other people: it’s about you. So instead of worrying about the things people do and do not like about you, pay attention to the things you do and do not like about yourself, without paying any mind to others’ opinions. List out qualities about yourself that you are satisfied with: you might find there are many more than you expected. Also counter that with things you are not so proud of.
Why also focus on the things about yourself you aren’t satisfied with? You should do this as a way of making note of things about yourself you want to improve. There are always little things we can do to change ourselves for the better, and taking small steps toward becoming more confident often involves admitting what we want to change and then figuring out how to make it happen.
3. Create a personal mission statement
This might sound a little like something a professor made you do when trying to prepare you for graduation, but it’s much more valuable than that. A personal mission statement says a lot about what you value most in the world, your priorities and what you believe you can accomplish in your lifetime.
Like an organization’s mission statement, your personal mission statement can serve as your ultimate guide in every single thing you do in your life from this point forward. Knowing exactly what you are trying to accomplish as a human being on this earth is probably the best thing you can do for your own confidence. It will make you much less likely to doubt yourself or question whether or not what you are doing with your life has any real value.
Be honest with yourself about what you really want to do with your life. Make it specific and attainable. A personal mission statement is a confidence booster like no other, because it relies only on you to create and accomplish.
4. Track the progress of your goals
When we are setting goals for ourselves, we often make the mistake of assuming that as soon as we reach a specific goal, we will finally be happy, or confident, or better. It isn’t about the goal itself, though, that has the ability to boost our confidence and make us feel better about ourselves. It’s also about the journey we embark on to get there, and the small milestones we reach as we take one step after another.
If you want to be more confident, do everything you can to make sure you are paying attention to your progress just as much as you are paying attention to the goal itself. The fulfillment we get from setting and achieving goals can either come all at once, which is not as effective, or more frequently at intervals, which is much more of a confidence enhancement.
Keep track of the steps you take toward accomplishing your goals, no matter how big or small they are. Little bursts of confidence along the way are so much more effective than the major confidence boost you’ll get when you actually accomplish the goal. They will keep you moving forward and feeling good about yourself for a longer period of time.
5. Surround yourself with confident people
Have you ever noticed how hard it is to stay positive about a situation when talking to someone with a negative attitude about it? It’s the same way with confidence. The more time you spend with people who are not confident, the less likely you will be able to break out of your shell and gather up the courage to go after the things you really want.
Surround yourself with other people who are more confident than you. Not so you can compare yourself to them in a negative way, but as a way to motivate yourself to make small changes to your behavior and lifestyle in order to achieve the level of confidence you want to exhibit in your life.
Where do you find confident people? In the workplace, in your friend circle, among your family members: there are confident people everywhere you turn. You don’t have to be intimidated by them. Let them inspire you instead.
No more comparing yourself to other people. Be aware of the things you do and don’t like about yourself, but use those things as motivation to consistently improve yourself. Create a personal mission to live by, track the progress you are making and make confident friends. In no time, you will have built up more confidence than you ever thought you could.
