One of the main ingredients of happiness is self-confidence. That is, that inner perception you have when you know that in you you can find a good friend who is always with you. You are the person with the greatest influence on your own life through your thoughts, behaviors and actions. Self-confidence is not innate; it is cultivated through experience. What can you do to achieve it?
In Psychology-Online we give you ideas of exercises to be more confident, practical suggestions that you can adapt to the circumstances of your life.
Some people feel negatively conditioned because they view their potential deterministically. That is, they believe that if they have behaved in a certain way so far, they cannot do anything to change this situation in the future. Therefore, it is important that you observe your real capacity to generate new options of change from new responses. If you always act predictably, the results are predictable too.
If you want to have more security in yourself, then you find yourself in a situation that, expressed in a simple way, shows the existing distance between two points: the current moment that you star in and that ideal that you would like to achieve in which you visualize yourself with that security that so much you long for.
This process is made up of an action plan that is made up of concrete and specific steps that connect with that general goal. Counseling can be especially positive in reinforcing your commitment to increasing your self-confidence.
How Thinking Influences Self-Confidence
Life has a theoretical and a practical part. On a theoretical level, it can help you to know that the way you think about yourself and about external circumstances influences how you position yourself in that reality. A person with a low level of self-confidence may boycott her growth with negative thoughts, ideas limiting and irrational beliefs that, on the level of emotion, produce an evident feeling of incapacity and helplessness. For this reason, at the level of action, it may happen that the person gets carried away by the effect of avoidance in a certain situation. Or act out of fear, worry, and mentally anticipated failure. In this case, the key will be to increase your security and self-confidence.
Once you become aware of how your own thoughts can fuel the confidence that you have in yourself or destroy it, what can you do at the level of action to internalize this reality? Vital learning is one that is accompanied by practical lessons. Therefore, those actions that pose a challenge for you to overcome are a good example of how, facing this situation within a security environment, allows you to nurture the bases of self-esteem and the image you have of yourself.
We know that it can be difficult to increase self-confidence, for that reason, we offer you the following exercises based on coaching:
Talk to a stranger
For example, you can ask someone walking down the street for information about where a certain address is located. Or you can also ask what time it is. They are everyday examples of situations that you have most likely already practiced at some point in your life. Simple examples that help you get out of your comfort zone.
Deliver your CV face to face
If you are looking for work, you can set the goal of hand over your resume in one of the companies in which you would like to work. Although sending the curriculum via email may be more comfortable for you, through this initiative you practice your social skills in a situation important to you. It is not a question of making this suggestion a general rule. But it can be a positive experience that you encourage yourself to exercise more frequently from now on.
Ask a question in public
If you are a student, you can ask the teacher a question (many students avoid asking it because they fear that others will think it is an unimportant question). If you are working, you can ask this question in a business meeting. If you are attending a conference, ask a question to the speaker during the question round.
External point of view
Request the collaboration of five people around you to ask them, please, to send you a WhatsApp message or an email with six positive qualities that they appreciate in you. This exercise is constructive because it allows you to see yourself from the gaze of others. And you may be surprised to realize how the image you have of yourself does not coincide in many ways with the vision that others have.
Do a volunteer activity
While the professional environment, at times, can be vulnerable due to the effect that competitiveness and productivity have on self-confidence, on the contrary, the human environment that accompanies the volunteer experience is rewarding in itself herself. By practicing an activity that you like, you feel valuable and competent.
List of qualities
Brainstorm a list of positive aspects that you like about yourself. If you prefer, you can focus this brainstorm on describing situations in your life in which you have felt proud of yourself for the way you act. Save this information in an easy-to-consult place so that you can reread it as many times as you need in the future.
This article is merely informative, in Psychology-Online we do not have the power to make a diagnosis or recommend a treatment. We invite you to go to a psychologist to treat your particular case.
