Confidence is a state of mind. It is a feeling of trust in one’s abilities, qualities, and judgement, and comes from feelings of well-being, acceptance of your body and mind (self-esteem) and belief in your own ability, skills and experience. Now it’s worth pointing out that self-esteem isn’t the same thing as what we’re discussing today.
Confidence is the term we use to describe how we feel about our ability to perform roles, functions and tasks. Self-esteem is how we feel about ourselves, the way we look, the way we think – whether or not we feel worthy or valued. Often times low self-esteem, and low self-confidence come hand in hand. What will work on improving one, will not necessarily improve the other. Below are 3 things you can start working on today to help increase your self-confidence:
Confidence Step 1:
Plan, prepare, and improve your time management
A lot of lack of self-confidence comes from the fear of the unknown, uncertainty and your ability to cope with either. Being organized with your time, planning your days, anticipating roadblocks, hurdles or curveballs and preparing for them will give you confidence and assurance that you are able to handle the majority of tasks in your day.
Confidence Step 2:
Surrounding yourself with people who believe in you
A lot of the time other people see strengths in you that you don’t see in yourself, and sometimes, we need others to believe in us before we believe in ourselves. And we ALL know that you are the average of the top 5 people that you spend the most time with. Confidence is contagious, which means unfortunately so is lack of confidence. So surround yourself with people who draw out, highlight and pay attention to your strengths, and who bring purpose and positivity into your life.
Confidence Step 3:
Figure out what you truly believe in and are passionate about, and educate yourself in it
There are always some topics and beliefs in life that resonate with us. Unfortunately, more often than not passions are cast aside for a more conventional life – a 9-5, with a husband, 2.5 kids and mortgage. It’s important to find that something that gives you a sense of pride and that your gut instinct tells you is right.
Once you have found that passion, educate yourself on it. Education is power, and not power over other people, but power within yourself. Being confident in your knowledge and beliefs, leads to being confident in yourself.
In next weeks blog we’ll cover tips to help improve your self-esteem, which will be vastly different to those mentioned above. But getting working on these 3 steps and you’ll be halfway there to a more confident, and positive you!