Confidence is something everyone struggles with. Even if people appear to be confident, there are always aspects of themselves they don’t necessarily love that affect their confidence.
Confidence guides you through life and helps you get to where you want to be. The question is, how do you achieve confidence and maintain it so it can be useful to you? Here are five ways to boost that confidence in yourself:
1. Fake it ’til you make it
Despite what you may think, many confident people who appear to be extremely self-reliant have insecurities that break their confidence down. The trick to emitting a confident vibe is simple: fake it.
Pretend that your self-confidence level is far above what it really is and soon it will get there without you realizing it. People around you will also notice a difference, which will further boost your confidence. Before you walk into a room, remind yourself to ‘put on your confidence.’
Faking it actually helps you become innately confident without you realizing it. This habitual reminder will become ingrained in your personality and your confidence will grow.
2. Monitor your body positions
It’s easy to let your body fall into positions that you feel comfortable in. To bring out your confident side, be aware of the positions you stand in. Science has shown that a person’s stance has a lot to do with how confident they feel and how confident people perceive them to be.
A scientific study showed that if a person stands in ‘Superman Pose,’ where they place their hands on their hips and put their shoulders back, they are more likely to be confident and perform better during interviews and other tasks.
Stand upright in this position for five minutes before any situation that demands confidence and you’ll notice a difference.
3. Change your focus
Many people struggle with low self-confidence because the negative thoughts in their heads tend to be a lot louder than the positive ones. When you are about to go into a situation that requires you to be confident, try and brush any thoughts that revolve around things going wrong or you messing up.
Focus on your thoughts that tell you how great you would be at the task and how happy you will be when things go right. It will unknowingly bring out your confidence.
4. Don’t compare yourself to other people
You have heard it a million times from every authority figure in your life – stop comparing yourself to others. It’s important for you to understand that everyone is different. Knowing this will help you be happy with yourself regardless of what everyone around you is doing.
When you find this happiness within yourself, your confidence will radiate from within. People who tend to compare themselves with other people fall into a cycle of self-depreciation which is incredibly toxic to your confidence.
Remind yourself that everyone has their own path and you are exactly where you are supposed to be, and you’ll find yourself being more confident than you were before.
5. Connect with everything around you
People who have a low self-confidence are usually stuck in their own mind, battling negative thoughts or thoughts about people around them thinking negatively. Instead of approaching a situation with these thoughts, focus on people and things around you.
When you engage in conversations, shift your attention to what the person is saying and immerse yourself in it. Soon, you will find that you were so involved in your conversation, you didn’t have time to think any of the negative thoughts that were previously clouding your mind.
This will help bring out your confidence and train your brain to push away negative thoughts for further situations that require your confidence.
