Confidence is an important aspect of our lives which we don't very often pay attention to unless it needs a boost or pick me up but what about increasing your confidence? How to increase your confidence and keep on track with your goals by ensuring you are building up and developing the level of confidence you have. You may have areas of confidence which need an increase possibly leadership or further goals depend on you becoming more comfortable with yourself and others. Confidence is like any other skill it needs development, time and love to grow and excel.
Start by making a list of all the special and unusual talents you may have. From great to small this list will show all the things that you have or can offer as a talent or skill. If you have trouble with this you may like to get the help of a friend, try and get as many as you possibly can. This is no time to be shy or modest. Just be honest with yourself, think right back to your childhood and remember the things you were good at then. Whether you can balance a spoon on your nose or dive for buried treasure all of your skills and atlantes are unique to you and have been developed and learned in a way which is comparative to no-one. It helps to keep this list somewhere handy so you can add to it and watch it grow.
Whether your passion lies in flowers or beehives, it is important to know and spend time focusing on your passions and things which you enjoy. Confidence comes from how you feel so if you are spending a small amount of time looking after yourself every week by doing something which ignites passion within you, it is amazing how much different your confidence levels will be. When you are true to yourself you are a more relaxed and happy person. Finding a balanced lifestyle where you are not only meeting the needs of others but yourself as well will increase your confidence and maybe even re-spark your smile so make sure you make the time to find your passion.
Role Models are a great way to track progress and maintain confidence boosting goals. It is important to of course be realistic about a role model and sincere as to why they inspire you. Make sure that you choose someone whom you admire and can relate to. It doesn't necessarily have to be a celebrity or someone of authority. Though it is necessary to find someone with skills and talents which you aspire to, and preferably someone who you can track your progress against, it may even help to combine your passion with your role model and incorporate the two for maximum potential and results.
One of the hardest things for a person with low self esteem of confidence to do is take a compliment, though if you can master learning to accept compliments then you are well on your way to increased confidence and maybe you will even believe the compliments. By simply acknowledging a compliment with a thank you, you are allowing the positive energy behind that compliment to surround you. You may not believe it now but this skill will not take ling to develop and you will see results in how you feel about yourself. By brushing off a compliment you will never believe it yourself, but by allowing someone else to pay you a compliment you are doing a service to both them and you.
1. Think about someone who is confident and act, talk and walk like him or her. Model their mannerisms and behavior. It works for them; it will work for you.
2. Smile a lot more. That doesn't mean putting a silly grin on your face! But smile when you walk down the street, when you meet people and generally be happier even if you're not feeling that way.
3. Learn from the past; don't beat yourself up about it. It's gone; it's never coming back. Instead learn from it for next time.
4. Buy yourself some new clothes, get your hair done, and treat yourself to something new. It will make you feel better and will give your ego a boost.
5. Are you prepared for situations? Are you prepared enough to meet any challenge that may come up? Are you prepared for that meeting, that presentation, that job interview, when you meet someone for the first time? If not, prepare now.
6. Play to your strengths. Know what you are good at and expose yourself to these opportunities at every opportunity because you're good at it, you'll enjoy it and have more confidence.
7. Improve your weaknesses. Know and appreciate what these are and put a plan in place to improve them over time.
8. Learn how to say no to people. Don't be afraid, you've got nothing to be afraid of. Just watch the reaction on their face after you've said it the first time and there will be no going back.
9. Be positive. Look on the "can do" side of things rather than the "can't do". You've accomplished lots in your life and you will accomplish lots more in the future.
10. Be in charge of your thoughts at all times. What is a thought? It's just a question that you've asked yourself and the thought is your answer. If you're thinking negative thoughts, you're probably asking a negative question. Change the questions to be more positive.
11. Whenever you feel a negative thought coming: STOP, THINK and ASK “Is this really important in the grand scheme of things?' A lot of the time it isn't. Many people in life major in minor things!
12. Do you let the words of others affect you? Do you mind what they think of you? Remember that no one can make you feel inferior without your consent. It's not what they say to you that's the problem it's what you say to yourself after they have stopped talking that's the problem. Change the way you think.
13. List the words that you use on a consistent basis when you feel let down or annoyed. People use different words to mean the same thing and depending upon the intensity of the word this will have an effect on your confidence. Instead of saying "I'm enraged about this" say, "I'm a little annoyed". Make a substitute list for the words that you use. Make sure they are lower in intensity and then use them. You'll be surprised with the results.
14. At the end of each day list your achievements and successes throughout that day.
15. Be appreciative of what you have to be thankful for in your life right now. Who do you love? Who loves you? Who do you help out?
16. Every morning when you're in the shower, play over in your head the events in the day as though they have already happened and they were a success. Visualize all of the meetings that you had, the people you talked to, the outcomes you had. Visualize success and confidence and it will be so.
17. Improve your body language. The way that you move your body has a massive impact on your confidence levels. Move your body assertively and walk with your head up, shoulders back and as though you've got somewhere very important to go. Feeling low in confidence? Change you body language
18. Emotion is created by motion. As in 17, make sure you move around consistently. This creates energy and gets the blood pumping around you body it makes you feel better and more confident.
19. Learn to brag about yourself. Yes, you heard me! Talk about your achievements and successes more than you currently are.
20. And finally - You only live once, so any time that you are down just ask yourself in 10 or 20 years time - will what I am worrying about really matter?
Both Peter Murphy & Sherri Frost are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.
Peter Murphy has sinced written about articles on various topics from Modelling, Marketing and Web Development. Peter Murphy is a peak performance expert. He recently produced a very popular free report: 10 Simple Steps to Developing Communication Confidence. Apply now because it is available only at:. Peter Murphy's top article generates over 90500 views. to your Favourites.