Self-confidence is one of the signs of good mental health but, unfortunately, there are many factors that prevent us from valuing ourselves. Most people nowadays suffer from the “never good enough” syndrome, meaning that no matter what they do in life, their confidence stays low.
If you want to transform your life and start having appreciation for your abilities and positive traits, then read along.
How Does Self-Confidence Affect your Life
Low self-confidence is not only going to make you feel bad but could have severe consequences on your life quality. It could prevent you from attending social gatherings, which in turn decreases your self-esteem even more, forming a positive feedback loop.
Low self-worth can also lead to more severe mental health conditions like depression and chronic anxiety and might cause you to develop some unhealthy and dysfunctional coping mechanisms such as substance abuse.
On the other hand, strong self-confidence (not to be mistaken with arrogance) is essential for good mental health and good life quality.
The more confidence you have, the more open you will be about trying new and more challenging things, which will help you grow as a person and bring you even more confidence in your own abilities.
Praise your Achievements
Learn to celebrate even the small accomplishments in your everyday life and you will start feeling a lot better about yourself. We tend to go through the day worrying about all that we didn’t manage to accomplish and we completely ignore the things that we actually achieved.
There is no way to feel good and confident if you don’t take the time to praise yourself.
We also tend to compare ourselves to others, which leads to conclusions like “I haven’t achieved anything”.
You have many achievements in your life but when you compare yourself to somebody else it might not look so.
Acknowledge the Things you’re Good at
There are probably a lot more things you’re good at than you think. Try to list at least three things that you’re good at and do more of them.
Doing something with success brings us pleasure and satisfaction and increases our self-worth. That is a healthy way to build up self-confidence, as the value comes from within and not from the outside.
Identify your positive character traits and strengths and work on them to further develop them and make them even stronger.
Learn to Say No
Learning to say “no” means you assert yourself and your boundaries, which is directly linked to self-confidence. When you say “no” to something you don’t want to do, instead of falling into the trap of guilt, will build your confidence little by little, while the opposite is going to tear it down eventually.
Saying “no” shouldn’t be upsetting to people if they value you and your boundaries, so when you assert yourself, you teach people to treat you with respect.
Set Achievable Goals
We are built to set goals and achieve them, which is why we instantly feel better and more confident after we achieve something. It doesn’t have to be a big thing, cleaning that cupboard that you’ve been postponing for a long time is enough to make you feel good about the fact that you’ve done something.
Set some goals for yourself, but make sure that they are not too big because the chance to keep your motivation increases when you accomplish small but achievable goals one at a time.
Take Care of Yourself
Taking care of your body will bring you good health but it’s also on the basis of self-confidence too.
What you eat and how well you sleep have a vast influence on how you feel mentally and physically. When you’re in good shape you will naturally feel much more confident, so exercising regularly is also crucial.
Unhealthy eating and a sedentary lifestyle not only affect your shape but also lead to depression, so there is no way to feel good about yourself without taking care of your body.
Be with Positive People
People can make you or break you when it comes to self-confidence. A person who is truly self-confident won’t be bothered at all about what other people are saying, but until you reach that point, it’s good to surround yourself with positive people that build you up.
Otherwise, it is very easy for people to bring you down, and many people with low self-esteem actually enjoy bringing others down to lower them to their own level and feel better about themselves.
If there are too many people in your life who are constantly judging you instead of being acceptive, maybe you need to change your social circle and rethink your friendships.
Trust your gut feeling, and if you feel bad after you’ve spent time with somebody, find a way to say goodbye.