Self Love Archives

Successful people credit their confidence for being successful. But they do throw light on how to be one. It’s because confidence is built on different things. It is built on accomplishments and choices that you make. Think about what you are capable of and believe in yourself. When you discover these, it would be the most worthy pursuits of life.

What is self-confidence?

Self-confidence is having a positive view of your life. It is a sense of control in your life. You are aware of your strengths and weaknesses. You have realistic expectations and can handle criticism. It is having trust in one’s ability, quality, and judgment. It is valuing yourself, regardless of what others may believe about you.

Benefits of self-confidence:

A healthy level of self-confidence helps you to be successful in your personal and professional life. It is essential for your psychological well-being.

Here are a few benefits of self-confidence:

Having healthy self-confidence can help you to devote your energy to your efforts. Rather than worrying about others and yourself for not being good, you can perform better by being confident.
Self-confidence improves healthy relationships. It helps you to understand and love others in a better way. It also gives the strength to walk away if you are not getting what you deserve.
You can be resilient if you have self-confidence. You will have the ability to bounce back from any problems or challenges that you face in your life.
With self-confidence, you are willing to try new things. It will be easier if you are confident about yourself and your abilities.

Who is a confident person?

Everyone is not born with a sense of self-confidence. It can be hard to develop confidence because you suffer from low self-esteem, or some personal experiences may have caused you to lose confidence in yourself. You need to build self-confidence to grow and to adapt to the changing environment.

A confident person:

Is willing to take risks
Always learns something new
Take up challenges in life
Learn from mistakes
Has positive affirmations
Does what is right
Accepts a compliment
Inspires others to be confident.

Self-confidence is challenging to build up. Here we have listed down a few ways you can improve your self-confidence.

1. Be honest with yourself

Accept your weaknesses and flaws. Reflect upon the mistakes you have made and admit them. Give attention to your feelings and trust others. Avoid self-blame and overthinking. Do not consider people’s judgments about you. You will be fearless when you know your capabilities.

2. Exercise

Workouts can boost your confidence, so try to make it a routine. Aim for at least 20 minutes of activity every day. You will end up being confident and feel more accomplished too.

Improve your self-confidence with exercise — Exercise For Healthy Mind And Body

3. Come out of your comfort zone

If you are confident enough, you will be able to face any problems in the future. Try new even though it scares you. You may find out that they are not as intimidating as you thought they would be. If you have that confident mindset, you can push yourself to do new activities that you would not normally do.

4. Improve your body language

Practicing a good posture helps you to feel more confident. If you are slouching or closing yourself off people, you seem like a timider. Instead, hold your head high and keep your arms at your side. Look more open and approachable. Take a look at your posture, recognize how you are presenting yourself and make changes when you need.

5. Avoid being arrogant

Stop being arrogant. Admit whenever you are wrong. Speak with confidence rather than with arrogance. Celebrate other people’s success. Notice your body language and change that when required. Arrogant people think that they are right most of the time. It is partially true or might be true with partial context. You have to let other people be right sometimes. Not every battle is worth fighting. Sometimes you have to just let go.

6. Think positive

Have positive affirmations for what you want to achieve every day. Tell yourself that you can do it. Let go of negativity around you. Always tell yourself things will be alright. When you have a positive mind, you will be able to make the best of any situation.

Benefits of self-confidence is you start believing yourself — Think Positive And Believe in yourself

7. Be prepared

Have a hope that something good will always happen. Also, be prepared to tackle the problems that may occur. When you are prepared, you will be more confident to face difficulties. You will be able to reach your goals much more smoothly.

8. Accept the compliments

When somebody says nice things about you, take a second to thank them and accept their feedback. If you are not confident about yourself, you may brush off when people say nice things about you. Instead, listen to what they are saying since it is positive that they recognize you.

9. Change small habits

Develop good habits and try to break the bad ones. Small and new good practices are more likely to stick. By making small changes in your habits, you can be more confident of achieving whatever you want.

10. Become knowledgeable

It is essential to feed your brain with good and positive content. Self-help is highly recommended for those who want to improve self-confidence. Stories of successful people are good to be motivated. If you do not have time to read books, you can try out audiobooks or find them free on youtube.

11. Remember that people are tolerant

You may think that people notice you when you are shy. Just remember that no one is judging you. Do not find this embarrassing. People are tolerant and accept you however you are. You should not feel nervous about it.

In conclusion, everyone at a stage of life struggles with confidence issues. If that interferes with your education, work, and social life, you should consider seeking help.

What can you do now?

It takes time, patience and persistence to develop self-confidence.
Consult a professional
Join a support forum
Talk to a friend
Explore new in life
Try out apps such as Joyscore.

Self-esteem mirrors your opinion of yourself – how you perceive your abilities, shortcomings, and your own worth. In simple words, it reflects how much you appreciate and like being yourself. There is a reason why Self-esteem, Self-respect, Self-love start with the word ‘Self’, and this is because you cannot find them in someone else. The essence of self-esteem lies in- Feeling lovable and feeling capable. Self-esteem is the key contributor to success, i.e., Belief you can do it, belief you deserve it and belief you will get it.

Self-esteem develops when one can interpret the world in their own terms and decline to abide by the judgement of other people. When one has healthy self-esteem, they feel good about themselves, are motivated to achieve more, and feel a sense of satisfaction. They focus on the progress and enhancement of their skill set and are less vulnerable to anxiety. Possessing little self-regard can result in one feeling depressed, unwilling to work on ideas, and constantly worrying about not being good enough. They focus on being cautious about making mistakes and live in a state of fear.

However, you must have heard this common phrase- ‘Excess of everything is bad’. While low self-esteem can force people to make the wrong choices or decisions, fall into traps, and enter disturbing relationships. An excessive sense of Self-worth will also make you subdue others and can be destructive for your relationships. So it is important to strike a balance between the two and it is the biggest achievement to be yourself in a world full of people who constantly try to make you behave or act differently than what you are.

Signs of Healthy Self Esteem Vs Low Self Esteem:

Healthy Self Esteem	Low Self Esteem
Confidence	Self-doubt or weakness
Expression of thoughts/ needs	Difficult to express thoughts/ needs
Positive outlook of life	Negative outlook of life
Say No when the need be	Have trouble in saying No
Focus on gearing towards success	Focus on fear of failure
Easily makes friends	Difficulty in making friends
Feelings like Joy, Happiness, Worthy of Love	Feelings like Shame, Anxiety, Unwanted

Self-esteem can be – Global or Situational. Global self-esteem is a constant belief about who you are. Another is the situational self-esteem which fluctuates basis circumstances, events, and roles. It can be high when you are promoted at work or can be low if you are going through a break-up.

Causes of Low Self-Esteem:

Unsupportive Parents/ Friends
Stressful circumstances like divorce/ break up
Constant Bullying
Lack of motivation
Mood disorder or medical issues

While everyone at some point in their life lacks confidence, but people with low self-esteem do not realize their worth and are pulled down as they feel unhappy and unsatisfied the majority of the time. When you value yourself and have high self-esteem, you feel stable and worthy. It takes time to cultivate healthy self-esteem and following are the tips to work on the same:

Eradicate Self Criticism- Be Kind to yourself. Make an effort to quieten the voice of doubt created inside you. Focus on replacing criticism with care and concern.

Stop Comparing- Focus on being the best version of yourself. Don’t compare yourself with others and stop striving to become like them.

Accept yourself– Nobody is perfect. Everyone makes mistakes. So, accept what is not perfect for you. Focus on what you can change for the better. Let yourself feel good about that because beauty begins when you decide to be yourself.

Don’t judge yourself basis other’s opinion- The one who knows their worth does not get disturbed by what you think about them. So, do not degrade your value basis someone’s inability to understand your worth. Don’t let anyone dimmer your shine.

Exercise- Set goals for work out and achieve them. This motivates and helps in improving confidence.

Recognize your strengths– Find out your competencies and work to strengthen them. E.g., If you are good at organizing, help your friend in planning and organizing an event. What holds you back is not what you are, but what you think you are not.

Surround yourself with a positive support group– Having a safety net of loved ones to fall back on, from time to time helps in strengthening your belief about yourself.

Understand that it is unlikely to achieve high self-esteem overnight, but small steps matter as the journey of a thousand miles begins with a small step. You will find improvements over a period. So, do not rush and try to be normal, which others think, for you will never know how astonishing you can be. Lastly, remember that ‘No one can make you feel inferior without your consent. So, don’t bend your head, rather hold it high and tell them that you are Worthy of Love’.

Top 11 Unique Ways to Improve Your Self-Confidence Instantly