Self-confidence understands that you trust your own judgment and abilities and value yourself, and feel worthy, regardless of imperfections or what others may believe about you. I am writing this article to help people Building self-confidence. Even the most outwardly confident person can find themselves doubting their abilities sometimes. For example, you may have a talent for coming up with great ideas or solutions but struggle to make your voice heard in meetings. Or, you may suddenly find yourself having to work from home for a long period of time and feel lost or isolated without the company of your colleagues.
To address short-term dips in confidence, first, try to identify the cause of the problem.
If you have difficulty maintaining confidence because of things you feel you can’t do, it makes sense to improve your skills. Try to identify your strengths and weaknesses. Then draw up an action plan to work on the areas where you’re not so strong.
How You work on Building Self-Confidence and Keep It
Reviewing Past Achievements
Your self-confidence can increase when you’re able to say, “I can do this, and here’s the evidence.” As part of your analysis of your strengths and weaknesses, you’ll have identified things that you’re good at, based on your past achievements. These past achievements help you in building self-confidence.
List the 10 things you’re most proud of in an “achievement log.” Perhaps you came top in an important test or exam, played a key role in an important team or project, or did something kind that made a positive difference in someone else’s life.
Review these achievements, and use them to make positive affirmations about what you can do. These affirmations can be potent if you tend to undermine your own confidence with negative self-talk.
Having a growth mindset, and getting rid of a fixed mindset
A growth Mindset is where you see failure as an opportunity to grow. You understand that failing is a normal part of learning and see it as an opportunity to improve.
A fixed mindset means you see failure as the limit of your abilities. It proves that you will not be able to do better.
To practice a growth mindset, start by thinking back to your first failures. Something that was really hard for you to learn but that you now know how to do.
Examples:
- Learning to ride a bike
- Speaking more fluent English
- Giving a presentation
- learning to code
Then, reflect on how far you’ve come and the remarkable progress you have made. Read about Techniques for effective time management.
Asking questions
Don’t be afraid to ask questions when you don’t know something. Doing a task incorrectly because you don’t fully understand it is not a good way to boost confidence and negatively affects when building self-confidence. If you’re ever unsure how something should be done, ask someone else what you need to do. Additionally, don’t go about a project without fully understanding the brief. Instead of going in the wrong direction and lowering your confidence, ask for clarification of what precisely is required.
Eliminate negative language
Sometimes the very language we use limits us. If you’re walking around all day saying, “I can’t…” you’ll find that you are closing your mind to solutions. Instead, ask yourself, “How could I…?” Finding effective solutions will boost confidence greatly.
When you’re self-confident, you trust your own judgment and abilities. It means having a strong sense of self-worth and self-belief.
You can take immediate steps to project greater self-confidence in the way you behave, and how you approach other people. You can then develop these short-term strategies into ways to build and maintain self-confidence for the longer term.
Boosting your confidence means developing good habits to improve your self-esteem, whatever other people think of you. Feeling good about your past achievements, and setting yourself achievable goals for the future, helps you build and maintain that confidence.