How you feel about yourself is a key issue in achieving anything in life. A self-confident person has high self-esteem, self-respect, and belief in her- or himself. By developing your self-confidence, you will be able to achieve your goals, take opportunities that come your way and also have the strength to overcome any obstacles.
Self-confidence is very important for having a successful career. If you do not have confidence in yourself and your abilities, how can you expect others to? When attending job interviews or hoping for a promotion, the way you behave and believe in yourself will ultimately create a win or a lose situation.
Here are five tips to help boost your self-confidence:
- Socialise with self-confident people and spend time in good environments. The people around you affect your confidence levels, so seek the company of people who are positive and are honest with you. Try to avoid negative people, as they can pull you down and deplete your energy. Choose your environments carefully and don’t compromise for others.
- Be true to yourself by taking action when you want something. Follow through on it even if you think you might fail. Be gentle with yourself and don’t put yourself down if you make a mistake – you are only human and we all make mistakes sometimes. The good thing is that you learn from them so that you know what not to do until you achieve your goal. If you keep trying, you will eventually succeed.
- If you are afraid of something, do it anyway. Often fear disappears when we face the things we are scared of, as we experience it how it is rather than how we have imagined. You will find the reality is that talking to that person was actually quite fun or attending that interview wasn’t as uncomfortable as you thought.
- Make sure that you keep a note of your achievements in life. Sometimes we feel like we don’t make any progress because ‘we can’t see the wood for the trees.’ Take time out to write down how far you have come over the years. Write down any fears you faced and obstacles you overcame. This will help keep you motivated and give you the confidence you need.
- When you go to bed at night think of any achievements you had during the day – no matter how small – and give yourself credit for them. This will make you feel good as you sleep, and when you wake in the morning, you can visualise yourself being happy and confident for the day. So you set yourself up for success!