How To Build Confidence In Yourself

Park Bo Gum TNGT

Not all of us are born with a natural confidence, and for some of us, we need to work at it in order to build it up. We can also take knocks to our confidence,  so whenever we reach a point where we feel our confidence cannot be broken, it can be upsetting when it does. But no matter what, you can always get that confidence back. Here are some tips to help build confidence in yourself.

Try Networking To Practice
Practice makes perfect, and therefore, you need an opportunity where you can put your speaking  skills to the test. Social situations are usually where we need to show the most confidence, and if your role at work is one that involves some public speaking, it can be terrifying if you’re nervous or lack that confidence. Networking events can be a great way to build personal confidence, not just for your general everyday life but professionally as well. Whether you choose to go to one that is business oriented or you just go to a local meet-up to make friends, try networking. It’s a good way to meet new people and to challenge yourself in speaking with strangers. Striking up a conversation can be tough when you don’t know where to start, but doing enough of these networking sessions can certainly improve your confidence and how you feel when speaking to new people.

Fix What You’re Conscious Of
There are aspects of ourselves that we don’t like personally but might not even be noticeable to other people. Regardless, what we don’t like about ourselves can only be fixed and made better if we make an effort. You might have crooked teeth that you’re conscious of, or perhaps they’ve yellowed to the point where it affects how you smile. If it’s dental help you need, then extensive cosmetic dental experience is worth looking for. Other examples of fixing what you’re conscious of might be something that is part of your visual appearance or it might be a strong accent or the way you react and act in front of others. It’s important that you stay true to yourself, but that doesn’t mean you can’t make some adjustment to what you worry about. Your happiness comes first after all so do those fixes for yourself rather than for anybody else.

Face Your Fears
Facing your fears is so important because a lot of where confidence lies is where those fears in life are stopping you from going to. You never want to let a fear control what you want to do in life or where you want to go. To ensure you face the fear, build yourself up a bit at a time and try to conquer something each day. If it’s to do with public speaking, then make an effort to chat to someone that you’ve not spoken to at work yet. There’s no problem with starting off small and then building up. The more you tick off that fear list, the more your confidence is going to build naturally. Don’t let those fears define who you are and face them with determination.

Find A Mentor 
A mentor is someone who inspires and gives you guidance on something that you might not have an awareness of. Whether you want that mentor to help you with having confidence in life or at work, there will be plenty of people out there who can and will want to help you improve. LinkedIn and people you meet through work will have many individuals who may have bags of confidence and that maybe you aspire to be or look up to. Approach them and ask whether they have ever wanted or do mentor. Some people will do it for free, whereas for others, it might be a full-time career for them, and therefore, it’s an investment for you to take advantage of.

Face What Is Knocking Your Confidence Head On
There will be times where you know exactly what it is that’s causing your lack of confidence. Maybe it’s to do with a specific member of staff at work that’s bringing you down, or it could be a certain task and environment that’s making you feel uncomfortable, like a group exercise class, for example. Once you’ve found what that problem is, you can work on facing it head on and finding ways to overcome it. With a group exercise class, maybe you need to take someone with you for the first time so that you have someone to lean back on. For troublesome work colleagues, you may want to try to avoid them more or to speak to your HR department or manager on how they can be stopped. There can always be a solution to the issue, so don’t be afraid of trying to combat it, even if you fail the first time around.

Have Daily Or Weekly Goals To Achieve
Building confidence takes time, and not everyone has the ability to change simply overnight. So setting daily or weekly goals is a good way of helping to achieve these small milestones to then build up to the bigger ones. Never feel like a setback is going to mean you’re failing because we all have those moments where we feel uncertain. It's all a learning curve, and things will only get better as you grow and improve. So set some weekly or daily goals on what you want to achieve in order to help build that confidence.

Confidence can be learned, and although those fortunate can have a natural confidence, it’s not something that’s impossible to achieve. So try to seek out those networking opportunities and get a mentor to help you. Face your fears and find out what’s causing those setbacks where you can. Fix what you might be conscious of and set those goals that you need to set in order to climb up that confidence ladder. Be proud of every step you take.

This is a contributed post.
Photo: TNGT

3 comments

Ivana Split said...

I do agree that confidence is something we can and should work on.

The Dainty Dolls House said...

These are brilliant tips and I do think confidence is definitely something everyone should take the time to work on x

Pilar said...

These are great tips! I think it's good to work on self confidence!