There’s a degree to which everyone has faith in their abilities. This belief is what we call “self-confidence”. With enough self-confidence, we can take on any kind of challenge and overcome any obstacle. However, self-confidence isn’t something we are born with, but rather something that we develop. So here are 6 ways we can grow our self-confidence.
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1. Attain knowledge, training, and skills
We are more likely to conquer the challenges at hand if we have the training and knowledge to tackle them. Lack of knowledge gives rise to uncertainty and doubt. Proper training and tools not only make our job easier, but having them also gives us a psychological boost for completing any task successfully.
It is also important that we don’t feel shy asking help from people with more experience. Education is helpful, but experience is irreplaceable. Learning from the experience of others makes us better prepared to take on any job.
2. Don’t linger on to mistakes
Mistakes can severely detriment our self-confidence and make us lose faith in ourselves. It can be difficult to move past them. Though we must realize that moving on from mistakes is the best way to recover from them.
We should also think of our mistakes as important learning opportunities. Realizing faults is better than ignoring them, as each mistake allows us to improve ourselves. We should think of each mistake as a step towards perfection.
3. Break down big projects into chunks
Difficult and time-consuming tasks can be intimidating, and the slow progress can be demotivating at times. The best strategy is to break a big project into smaller chunks. This makes it easier to track our progress and to keep our self-confidence up. With the completion of each mini task, we get a sense of accomplishment. Each accomplishment will lift our spirits and keep us driven and confident.
4. Get away from negative people
Our social circle can have a profound effect on our attitude. Being around encouraging and supportive people helps keep our self-confidence boosted. On the other hand, surrounding ourselves with complainers, naysayers, and enviers can make us demotivated, frustrated, and insecure. If we want to feel positive about ourselves, we should first cut off toxic people from our lives.
5. Don’t overemphasize trivialities
We often grow too conscious about some of our imperfections. We feel people are noticing them all the time and judging us. The truth is, everyone is too busy to be noting our insecurities. Besides, they have their own faults to worry about.
We should stop worrying about things we can’t control, and vow to improve the things we can. Once we accept these aspects of our personality, we will feel much more secure and self-assured.
6. Stop drawing comparisons to others
We often come across people who seem stronger, prettier, richer, smarter, more skilled, more social, or more confident than us. Subconsciously or consciously, we sometimes draw comparisons between us and them and feel dispirited.
Instead of comparing things we can’t change—like beauty, strength, and riches—we should instead draw healthy comparisons to things that are within our control, and strive to achieve them.