Learn How to Become Confident, One Step at a Time
By: Jonathan Printers Jr.
Tags: Love Yourself, Thoughts And Feelings, Ideas To Execution, Happiness, Confidence

Learn How to Become Confident, One Step at a Time

Photo by Timothy Eberly on Unsplash

With confidence, everything’s possible, and without it, almost everything seems impossible.

What do you do when certainty eludes you?

How to regain your confidence back again?

Can we restore our self-belief?

How do you get your flow back?

These are the simple questions that I try to answer when others ask me about confidence.

Confidence: another name for self-belief and complete trust in your abilities.

Confidence Re-imagined

Unforeseen circumstances throw life into chaos, and the most precious of all ingredients that fuel us, confidence, appears to shrink. Sometimes, this is hitting rock bottom. The once roaring river of faith is down to a trickle, and you become a shadow of your true self.

Every one of us may go through such phases of depression. Still, how much ever life hits you hard, you can claw back every inch and get your confidence back.

How do you do that? It may be the simplest and most challenging thing, depending on your attitude and mindset. The very fact that you are willing to take efforts is half the battle won.

How to Regain Your Confidence

What is confidence? It is another name for self-belief and complete trust in your abilities.

So, the question about being confident is, in actuality, a question about how to believe in yourself again.

Here are a few tips that might help.

1. Empty Your Cup of Negativity

“It is better to dwell on the beautiful things in life than the negative.” - Lailah Gifty Akita

If you had to measure positive versus negative thoughts, would your positive opinions outweigh the negative?

Have you been running low on confidence because you have let your mind fill with negativity?

Sometimes that’s how it works. Once we allow negative thoughts to take up space in our minds they become distracting.

Worrying about what others think about you and how they make you feel is not how you are meant to spend your time. Let me tell you the truth. You are what you see yourself to be and not what others think you are.

We all have self-talk; you can choose to let it be positive or negative. Let go of all the negativity and think with an open mind — silence all the ‘Naysayers’ in your account.

Something I heard a long time ago that is true and very helpful is that: You are the only ‘you’ on Earth, and there will never be another!

You are unique and special, with your distinct set of skills and gifts;

Have the right to share your own set of opinions and beliefs;

And, you are free to make your own choices.

Listen to your mind and your original ideas, rather than trashing them away. Start today to compare yourself to your achievements, instead of another’s.

2. Let Go of the Past

Kylo Ren, Star Wars: The Last Jedi (2017), Lucasfilm

Likewise, most people lose confidence because of past failures that weigh down on their minds. They let the past ruin their present. Moving ahead in life while thinking of the past is like swimming with lead weights.

The past is history. Failure is supposed to challenge you to succeed. Investigate the mistakes that led you to crash and do your best not to repeat what they were. Nobody is perfect.

It is human to make mistakes. Break the pattern of negative thought and back yourself. Winning is all about learning from your failures and turning your weaknesses into your strengths.

3. Practice and Prepare Yourself

Preparation and practice will give you confidence. What gives great athletes and sportspeople their belief is the efforts they put in while practicing their skills.

When you are prepared for a challenge, confidence will automatically develop. From such small victories, confidence grows slowly and surely. Practice and preparation are the keys to getting started.

4. Love, Respect, Trust Yourself

We all have self-talk; you can choose to let it be positive or negative.

In addition, love and respect yourself for who you are and for the events that have shaped you. Whom can you ever trust, and who will ever believe you if you do not trust yourself?

A confident you can be reinforced from positive thinking. That confidence will grow naturally from relying on yourself and your character.

5. Build Confidence From Small Victories

Celebrate every little self-improvement and every small personal victory. Take up the confidence built from every trivial task achieved, and it will go on building itself up.

Take every failure as an opportunity to learn. Through challenging your limits to reach greater heights, your confidence gets a natural boost and should restore.

6. Approach Life With a Smile

Similarly, like our self-talk, you can create a habit out of approaching the day with a smile or the alternative.

When you smile, your brain releases tiny molecules called neuropeptides to help fight off stress (SCL Health, 2018). Then other neurotransmitters like dopamine, serotonin, and endorphins come into play as well.

Simply, it is worth intentionally wearing a smile to boost your mood and happiness level. The happier we are, the greater our chances are at feeling confident.

7. Only You Can Be Your Saviour

We can depend on others to influence us and help us get moving; however, the decision to feel better about it will come from today’s mindset.

Don’t win the week, month, or year. Focus on today: How can I get better today?

Remember that getting your confidence back eliminates self-doubt, cynicism, and negativity that try to trap you in that mindset. It’s as a funnel, once you allow one negative thought to influence you, anything but appears foreign.

Allow the comfort of positive thinking, self-belief, and pure, uncontained laughter to exceed negative self-talk, simultaneously increasing your self-esteem.

8. Develop A Mantra

“Whatever the mind can conceive and believe, it can achieve.” — Napoleon Hill.

The thought above is the message that you require to build your confidence one step at a time. The eBook Mental Strength Hacks shares the importance of developing a mantra that can impact your confidence when challenged.

A significant part of mental toughness is the ability to instantly change your mindset.

Here is a mantra you can repeat to yourself next time you contemplate a challenge or need an extra boost of mental endurance to ensure you give 100%:

“You have not gone through 4.5 billion years of evolution just to be average.

After all, isn’t it life’s pursuit to be the best version of yourself? Way above your average potential?”

This “average” isn’t comparing yourself to others, such as fame and accolades, but how you’re progressing individually.

Outside of our genetic differences, I have the same potential as each other person on this Earth. So do you.

That question is profound. Contemplating your place on our rock in the universe is mind-boggling. It is a topic the smartest minds in history have spent countless lifetimes trying to understand.

But, reminding yourself how far we’ve all come can help you find the mental confidence you need to tackle new challenges.

Similarly, ‘Nothing is Impossible’ is a mantra in which you can adopt. Say it like you mean every word of it.

Repeat it until you feel the adrenaline rush and your confidence coursing and flooding back into you.

Take-Home

Limits only exist when you create them in your mind. Remember, life is full of possibilities waiting to unfold. The key to gaining your confidence back is believing in yourself 100%. Let go of all your self-imposed limitations and unleash yourself.