Building Confidence and Self-Esteem

Building your Confidence and Self-Esteem

 

“Low self-esteem is like driving through lifewith your hand brake on.” — Maxwell Maltz

Nobody is born with limitless self-confidence. If someone seems to have incredible self-confidence, it’s because he or she has worked on building it for years. Self-confidence is something that you learn to build up because the challenging world of business, and life in general, can deflate it.

People with low self-esteem tend to see the world as a hostile place and themselves as its victim. As a result, they are reluctant to express and assert themselves, miss out on experiences and opportunities, and feel powerless to change things. All this lowers their self-esteem still further, sucking them into a downward spiral.

If you feel that you suffer from poor self-esteem, there are a number of simple things that you can do to boost yourself and, hopefully, break out of the downward spiral.

 

Make two lists: one of your strengths and one of your achievements.

 Try to get a supportive friend or relative to help you with these lists, as people with low self-esteem are not usually in the most objective frame of mind. Keep the lists in a safe place and read through them every morning.

Visualize yourself as you want to be.

Visualization is the technique of seeing an image of yourself that you are proud of, in your own mind. When we struggle with low self-confidence, we have a poor perception of ourselves that is often inaccurate. Practice visualizing a fantastic version of yourself, achieving your goals.

 

Affirm yourself

We tend to behave in accordance with our own self-image. The trick to making lasting change is to change how you view yourself.

Affirmations are positive and uplifting statements that we say to ourselves. These are normally more effective if said out loud so that you can hear yourself say it. We tend to believe whatever we tell ourselves constantly. To get your brain to accept your positive statements more quickly, phrase your affirmations as questions like, “Why am I so good in making deals?” instead of “I am so good at making deals.” Our brains are biologically wired to seek answers to questions, without analyzing whether the question is valid or not. Think positively about yourself.

Remind yourself that, despite your problems, you are a unique, special, and valuable person, and that you deserve to feel good about yourself. You are, after all, a miracle of consciousness, the consciousness of the universe. Identify and challenge any negative thoughts about yourself such as ‘I am loser’, ‘I never do anything right’, or ‘No one really likes me’.

 

Wear comfortable clothes that make you feel good about yourself. 

Dress to express no to impress

All things being equal, wear an ironed shirt rather than a crumpled T-shirt. Wearing comfortable clothes adds up confidence to your mindset knowing that you feel and look good best with your attire. There’s nothing more important than feeling best of yourself with good outfit.

 

Do one thing that scares you every day.

The best way to overcome fear is to face it head-on. By doing something that scares you every day and gaining confidence from every experience, you will see your self-confidence soar. So, get out of your comfort zone and face your fears.

 

Set yourself up to win.

Too many people are discouraged about their abilities because they set themselves goals that are too difficult to achieve. Start by setting yourself small goals that you can win easily. Once you have built a stream of successes that make you feel good about yourself, you can then move on to harder goals. Make sure that you also keep a list of all your achievements, both large and small, to remind yourself of the times that you have done well. Reflecting on the major milestones, projects and goals you’ve achieved is a great way to reinforce confidence in your skills.

“To establish true self-confidence, we must concentrate on our successes and forget about the failures and the negatives in our lives.” — Denis Waitley

Create personal boundaries.

Learn to say no. Teach others to respect your personal boundaries. If necessary, take classes on how to be more assertive and learn to ask for what you want. The more control and say that you have over your own life, the greater will be your self-confidence.

“Never be bullied into silence. Never allow yourself to be made a victim. Accept no one’s definition of your life but define yourself.”- Harvey Fierstein

 

Love yourself

Love yourself. Never forget that at the end of the day there’s no one other than you that will help you in the first place. Learn to be independent and never rely yourself based on someone’s opinion. You know yourself better than anyone in this world. Always keep a positive mindset. Always keep in mind that God created us all equally, and that we are all unique in our very own way. You may not have what others have but there are also things that you have that others does not have. Do not be afraid to show the world who you are and what you have.