#5 Top Tips to Feeling More Confident
Self-confidence is a hard personal skill to cultivate and then maintain, especially if you have challenges such as a critical work environment, friends, family or partner. Having over self-confidence can be seen as arrogance and low self-confidence is doing yourself and your skills a disservice. Finding the right balance of self-confidence feels great to have, and shines out bright from within.
#1 use affirmations
Creating your own affirmations, positive phrases that you read or say to yourself, can boost your self-confidence by retraining the way you think about yourself and your life in general. It can feel like you are saying a fantasy or a lie but by creating affirmations can can become true you can build positive change. So instead of saying “I am thin” you could say “I am following a healthy lifestyle” or “I have the strength to avoid temptation”. These can be written out or simply said to yourself in your mind when you are tempted or to strengthen resolve. Using my affirmation cards as a reminder in your life are a great and beautiful way to keep positive thoughts in your mind and your goals on track.
#2 list your skills and achievements
Sometimes when we feel down from high self expectation or from external failure or criticism we can forget our past achievements and accomplishments. Have qualifications or skills do we have? What achievements have we done in the past. What have we accomplished especially when under challenge or through opposition? When have we proved others wrong in their low opinions of us? Pause, think and meditate and then write yourself a list answering all of these questions. What we have already done is set in stone as a core pillar to feel proud of. Never under estimate or under value yourself, presently or for the future.
#3 make a power song playlist
This is a fun one! Make a list of your favourite power songs. Some could be common popular ones, some could be personal to you with personal meaning. Some are simply great to sing along to at the top of your voice. Choose your favourite genre or pick and mix. They could be powerful rock music or remind you of a part in an inspiring film. Maybe the words simply hit home with you at the present time and situation. There are many ways to make a playlist that don’t cost a fortune (spotify, itunes). Listen to it in the car or the gym or on your mp3 player when you feel down, devalued or facing failure. Click here to see my favourite suggestions…
#4 spruce up your wardrobe
A spring clean of your appearance, clothes, hairstyle or make up can do wonders for your confidence. Maybe you’ve lost weight recently or simply fancy throwing away old clothes that remind you of bad times or relationships. Feeling fresh and new on the outside often does magic for our minds inside. Treating ourselves to something ‘naughty’, expensive or simply a swanky new outfit. Try wearing your favourite scent or trying out a new one. Do you have an outfit that inspires you in the style of someone you’d like to emulate or maybe you have some existing clothes that remind you of an event or just that you feel amazing when wearing them.
#5 fantasise - visioning into reality
A lot of people find it hard to imagine or find it hard to give a form to their dreams and goal. Vision boarding is a great way to collate images and words that inspire you or to bring physical focus to your dreams and ideas. You can vision board about a theme such as ‘love’ or use a time frame such as ‘my next year’. Anything that you’d like to collate together visually on a board to give your ideas a real visual impact. Your boards can be computer created from internet images or use good old fashioned magazines to cut and paste. Colours, images and inspiring phrases relevant to you and your aspirations can be arranged how you like, they don’t have to be laid out in a designer fashion. You can view your board daily or keep it secret it you wish. The idea is to give yourself a clearer focus and constant reminder on where your heading to in your life path. You can ceremoniously burn them when you’ve finished or simply dismantle and create a new one or update as you achieve certain goals or shift focus.