How To Build Self Confidence

Self-confidence is defined as a feeling of trust in one’s abilities, qualities, and judgment. Self-confidence is important to your health and psychological well-being.¹

Having a healthy level of self-confidence can help you become successful in your personal and professional life.

Here are 17 hacks to dramatically increase your self-confidence: 

1. Push through self-limiting beliefs. It may seem like you’ll just have to live with them forever, but the more you push through and actively try to disprove these beliefs, the sooner they’ll start to lose their power over you.
2. Talk back to your inner critic. When your inner critic starts getting negative, remind it that this is just a temporary feeling and that even when things are difficult now, they will get better.
3. Work on building newer skills all the time. Self-confidence doesn’t just come from skills; it comes from having a diverse skill set. Hone your strengths and improve them. Throw out what you think is weak, and be willing to try new things even if they scare you.
4. Don’t settle for average where work is concerned. If you feel like you are just not good enough or satisfied with what you are doing, remember that it takes more than being average to make a difference in the world. Meaning that trying things that are challenging and scary is okay.
5. Be kind to yourself. When you get up in the morning, give yourself a little pep talk. Tell yourself that it’s okay if you don’t know what you want out of life right now or that work is hard. It can all be worked through if you are diligent and take breaks when necessary.
6. Admit when you are wrong about something. I know this is hard to do, but being wrong does not mean that you are a bad or stupid person. You can always say “Well, I guess I was wrong about that” and then adjust as necessary.
7. Don’t be so proud that you can’t take advice from others. As we grow older and wiser, we tend to automatically assume we can handle everything on our own, but it is okay to ask for help. Just remember to thank the other person afterward for their time and expertise.
8. Grow as a person. Sometimes we forget that it is more important to grow into a person that can handle and work through life’s challenges than it is to go after and maintain the ideal of our childhood self.
9. Face your fears. Look at that thing you’ve been avoiding. You know, the one that’s been holding you back. It might be a job interview, a phone call with an important contact, or just stepping out of your comfort zone in some way. Make the tough decision and take the leap.

10. Learn to love yourself. Start by accepting who you are now and stopping any negative talk about yourself – those thoughts don’t serve any purpose other than to hurt your self-esteem.

11. Stop comparing yourself to others. This is a guaranteed way to lower your self-confidence. It’s not healthy to compare yourself with others, because everyone is on a different path and in a different place in life. Focus on being the best YOU possible, and you’ll be much happier.

12. Practice gratitude for what you have (and stop complaining about what you don’t have). The more you focus on what you do have, the more positive energy you will radiate.

13. Don’t just wish and hope that something will happen, make sure it does. Make a plan and take action on it. You might be surprised at what can happen when you have persistence and confidence to become successful against all odds..

14. Give yourself a pat on the back for every accomplishment (and doubt) you overcome. No matter how small, always give yourself credit for the things that come easily to you. Never doubt yourself for being able to do something. Don’t let others put you down and tell you that you can’t do something, either.

15. Appreciate the little things in your life, like a warm cup of coffee, a beautiful sunrise, or your child playing quietly in their room. These are often what make you feel better about everything else in your life!

16. Become a positive thinker. In order to develop self-confidence, you need to become a positive thinker and stop worrying so much about the future. You won’t improve if you have negative thoughts about yourself. Instead, focus on what makes you a good person and think about ways in which you are already successful in life.

17. Your self-confidence will improve by doing these things every day for just a few minutes each time. You’ll be surprised at how much better you feel as your self-esteem rises!

By learning to overcome our self-limiting beliefs, develop new skills, be kind to ourselves and take good advice from others, you can create the most powerful self-confidence you’ve ever had!

Remember that self-confidence isn’t something to strive for. Instead, work on improving and developing the skills you already have.