Confidence is being sure of yourself and what you can do. Lack of self-confidence can make it hard to do well at work, in personal relationships, at school, and in social settings. Lucky for you, there are things you may not think of or know about that can help you feel better about yourself. If you know about these five tried-and-true methods, you’ll be more sure of yourself tomorrow.
Here are 5 ways to feel better about yourself:
1. Increase Your Self-Esteem
Self-esteem is how much you value yourself. If you have a high self-esteem, you are more likely to feel good about yourself (and thus act confidently). There are three main things that contribute to having a high sense of self-worth: performance accomplishments, global trait ratings, and how you look.
2. Improve Your Physical Appearance
How you look does matter! Research shows that the thing that is most likely to affect how confident you are is how you look. If you are handsome or pretty, well-groomed, and wearing the right clothes for the situation, you will feel more confident than if these things were not true.
3. Don’t Focus On Being The Best
Even the best at anything can make mistakes. Even though it seems like being the best at something would make you feel good about yourself, research shows that this isn’t always the case. How can someone feel good about themselves if they aren’t perfect? Also, if you only think about what you can’t do, you limit your chances of being successful in life.
Rather than trying to be the best at something, try to be the best you can be.
4. Take Action!
One of the best ways to feel better about yourself is to do something that makes you feel proud and successful. When we do something we know we can do well and finish it, our brains send out chemicals that make us feel good about ourselves. These hormones that make us feel good give us a rush of positive energy, which boosts our self-esteem and confidence.
5. Visualize A Successful Outcome
Most athletes know how powerful it can be to picture what they want to happen. The more you imagine something going well, the more likely it is that it will happen in real life. Because our brains respond better to visual stimuli, effective visualization can work even better than positive thinking.
Here are some suggestions on how to imagine:
- Imagine yourself completing the task successfully, but keep in mind that this isn’t magic; it’s just a thought exercise. Don’t worry about how other people will react, just think about how it will feel to finish the task and reach your goal.
- Try different things, like thinking about what problems could come up and how you would deal with them. You can also try to imagine more than one possible outcome and choose the one you think is most likely.
- The same is true for visualizing a successful outcome: the more time and effort you put into it, the better it will work.
There You Have It!
Many people don’t use these techniques very often because they don’t feel natural to them. If you keep trying to use these techniques in your life, you will feel more confident about the things you need to do every day. You can even use some of these tips to talk to other people with more confidence!
