How To Build Self-Confidence – 7 Practical Ways

Looking for ways how to build self-confidence? How about starting with making yourself a priority and focusing on self-esteem in 2021?

As they say, “Self-confidence is a superpower. Once you start to believe in yourself, the magic starts happening.”

With every passing day, we all understand the importance of being confident and boosting our self-esteem.

However, there are times when we feel clueless and lost, not really knowing what we should do when challenges knock on the doors.

It’s not hard to see why — people with a good sense of self-esteem consistently have better mental health and are happier and more successful.

But what happens when you don’t have high self-esteem?

As the new year has already set in, I’m sure that all of us are contemplating on sticking to our new year resolutions and what can be better than working on our own selves.

How to build self-confidence:

1. Make yourself a priority.

Since childhood, we are socially conditioned and taught that putting other’s needs before our own is a virtue while prioritizing our own needs is selfish.

However, you can’t have a good sense of self-esteem if you don’t make your own needs a priority.

To boost your self-confidence, it’s important to understand what you need in life, what makes you happy, what brings peace to your mind, and focus on your own wellbeing.

A happy & peaceful mind will automatically enhance your self-confidence.

2. Don’t wait for external validation.

In today’s date, we often tend to put out the major life events on social media, seeking validation from the world.

Even if we know that we’ve done something good or achieved a goal, we still look forward to getting acknowledged by others.

Our confidence often depends on others’ opinions – and when there’s no encouragement from the world, we tend to feel depressed or suffer from an inferiority complex.

The best way to enhance your self-confidence is to stop seeking external validation and be your own cheerleader.

Celebrate the little achievements and tell yourself that you’re good enough to fly high.

To put it in the words of Louise L. Hay, “You have been criticizing yourself for years, and it hasn’t worked. Try approving of yourself and see what happens.“

3. Stop trying to please everyone.

Let me be honest, if you spend your whole life trying to please everyone, you won’t find personal happiness.

People pleasers have an unfortunate habit of making everyone else a priority over themselves and pretending to be someone other than their authentic selves.

You need not do things that you don’t feel like doing, just for the sake of making others happy. If you wish to say ‘No’ to something, feel free to do so.

It’s an important step towards boosting your self-esteem and once you stop putting efforts into pleasing others, you’ll gather enough confidence to focus on yourself.

4. Focus on yourself while you talk.

Conversations reveal confidence and the way you talk says much about your personality. Part of developing healthy self-esteem requires analyzing how you talk to yourself.

Negative self-talk (for example, ‘I think I can’t do this’) creates a feedback loop where your self-esteem drops, which leads to more negative self-talk.

The most effective way to break the cycle is to counter that negative self-talk through being kind and positive towards yourself. Make a habit to appreciate yourself every day before going to bed.

Also, when you talk to others, look straight into their eyes, and have a smile on your face. This will add a charm to your conversation and reveal your self-confidence.

5. Add positivity to your actions.

To think positive isn’t enough – you need to act positively as well. Actions, actually, are the key to developing self-confidence.

It’s one thing to learn to think positive, but when you start acting on it, you can actually change yourself, one action at a time.

You are what you do, and so if you change what you do, you change what you are. Act in a positive way, take action instead of telling yourself you can’t – nurture a positive attitude in life. You’ll soon start to notice a difference.

6. Start a self-care regime.

Good living helps to bring stability in life, and thus, boosts self-confidence. By self-care, I mean taking care of the body, mind, and soul.

Eating a well-balanced diet, exercising regularly, and getting enough sleep are immensely important steps towards self-care.

But there’s a lot more that one can do. Start your daily self-care regime by meditating in the morning – this would help to kick-start your day in a mindful way, enhance your concentration, and help you to keep the negative thoughts at bay!

Make sure to drink enough water (at least eight glasses a day).

If possible, try doing yoga – which will not only increase the flexibility of your body but also help you to gain consciousness about your body parts.

Journalling is another very important self-care, where you can assess your actions, keep a note of what made you happy and what didn’t work out the way you wanted so that you can do better the next time.

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7. Be grateful.

It is extremely important to cultivate a healthy sense of self-esteem which also involves the ability to be grateful for what you have.

Someone will always have something more than you – whether it’s money, good looks, intellect, etc.

But you are no less and you have something special, that makes you unique. Instead of getting caught up in what you don’t have that others do, focus on what it is that you do have. Be grateful.

When you focus on being grateful for the things that you do have, you start to feel happier with your life and more self-assured.

Related

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Practicing these might not be easy at first due to ingrained habits developed over a lifetime, but if you consistently try these actions every day they will start to become second nature and you will start to see an improvement in your self-esteem.

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