July 25, 2023
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8 min read
Being confident isn’t always easy. If you want to improve your self-confidence, don’t worry: it’s completely doable.
In our comprehensive guide, we’ll give you all the information and tools you need to boost your self-confidence — in just seven steps.
Self-confidence is your own belief and attitude toward yourself and your capabilities. When you’re self-confident, you’re proud and trust yourself completely. Because of that, you also tend to have an optimistic, positive perspective when you’re confident in yourself.
The line between self-esteem and self-confidence is thin because they tend to overlap. Still, that doesn’t mean they’re the same.
While self-esteem refers to how you value and respect yourself, self-confidence includes the faith you have in yourself and your capabilities.
Even so, the two terms really go hand-in-hand.
If you’re unfamiliar with what self-confidence means, sometimes a few synonyms can help shed light on the meaning.
Some of the best self-confidence synonyms include:
Low-self confidence means that you have trouble trusting yourself and others because you don’t feel confident in yourself.
Signs you have low-confidence could include things like:
If you do think you have low self-confidence, there’s no need to stress. There are plenty of simple, easy ways to boost your self-confidence.
If you’re looking to improve your self-confidence, look no further. We’ve simplified the best ways to improve your confidence in yourself in just seven simple ways.
Here are the seven best ways to boost your self-confidence.
Recognizing and acknowledging your own strengths and “wins” is very important to boosting and maintaining your self-confidence. Knowing what you’re best at emphasizes your abilities and helps you visualize your achievements better. This includes celebrating your own accomplishments and following your progress.
If you don’t immediately know what your personal strengths are, that’s totally OK. Here are some helpful ways you can recognize and identify your strengths:
You might not be surprised to find out that your own self-confidence is often tied to your ability to communicate effectively. One of the best ways to improve your self-confidence is to work on your communication skills.
To improve your view of yourself and your abilities, try working with an AI speech coach like Yoodli.
Yoodli uses AI technology to analyze your speech and speaking patterns when you upload or record a video of yourself talking. As part of its analysis, you’ll get not only a full transcript of what was said, but also specific metrics and insights to your own speech.
For example, you’ll automatically get specific data on things like your:
This speech coach also gives you clear, actionable feedback. That might be to slow down when you’re speaking, to avoid using as many filler words, or even to reword sections of your speech to improve the flow.
Using Yoodli during virtual work meetings can also be insightful, too. By using Private Yoodli, you can take a look at these metrics and analytics during an actual meeting. Plus, this speech coach can give you tips in real-time to improve your speech, so you’ll be more confident than ever.
Learn more about how that works below:
Sometimes, reading about self-confidence and methods to improve can make a world of difference. Luckily, there’s tons of research and literature about having confidence and faith in yourself, so you’ll have an entire library of potential books to choose from.
Some of the best self-confidence books include titles like:
If you still find yourself needing some inspiration, check out these seven best motivational speeches.
Setting goals is easy, but setting realistic goals? That’s a bit more difficult. Setting a realistic goal means identifying what you need to accomplish and how. Experts recommend setting SMART goals, an acronym that can be defined as follows:
To make the goals a bit more visible, try writing them down along with any steps you’ve identified to work towards them. If you appreciate lists, you can organize the steps into a checklist and check them off as you go, so you can visually see your progress.
Remember, perfection in humans doesn’t exist. It’s the same with the phrase “practice makes perfect.” Instead, a better phrase to use might be “practice makes progress.”
Saying no can be incredibly difficult. However, learning to say no to things you don’t want to do (or can’t do) is a must to boost your self-confidence.
First one thing, you’ll feel more confident in yourself that you even have the strength to say no. But beyond that, learning to say no ensures that you don’t take on too much work, take on work you hate, or work that you don’t have time for. This keeps your life less stressful and you’ll be proud of your ability to decline requests from people when needed.
One of the biggest mistakes people make with self-confidence is not expressing their needs, emotions, and feelings. Hiding or feeling uncomfortable expressing yourself is tied to low confidence.
Expressing your needs could apply to anything. Although it certainly applies to romantic relationships, it can also refer to professional relationships, friendships, or even just to the person waiting on your table at a restaurant.
You’ll improve your confidence when you’re able to voice any concerns, needs, or emotions and have faith in yourself while doing so.
Making assumptions can seriously harm your confidence. On the other hand, actively ceasing to make assumptions can boost your self-confidence. Making assumptions about other people, situations, or even just yourself is a slippery slope that leads to a lack of confidence.
You might be surprised to realize how often you make assumptions, especially about other people. For example, you might be afraid to speak up and ask questions at work or school.
Your first thought may be, “But what if everyone thinks I’m dumb for asking this question?” By thinking this, you’re automatically making an assumption that everyone in the room will question your intelligence and competence merely because you asked a question.
If you go into work without assuming that, you’ll feel much more self-assured asking questions, for example.
Although it’s easier said than done, taking a moment to recognize assumptions you make about yourself, other people, or situations can help you avoid a ding to your confidence.
Self-confidence is important because research shows that having confidence in yourself improves not only your social life, but also your health. And these benefits aren’t just brief — they’re long-term benefits.
Researchers found that people who have high levels of self-confidence often have:
These are just a few reasons why self-confidence is important, but there are plenty of other benefits you can reap from boosting your confidence in yourself.
Before we wrap up, here are the best self-confident quotes to inspire and motivate you.
If you’re feeling low or having trouble with motivation, some of the following self-confidence quotes might help:
Next time you’re feeling low, try reading or even saying some of these self-confidence quotes aloud — it’s an easy way to “trick” your mind into feeling a bit more positive about yourself.
Self-confidence is incredibly important and should be a life goal for everyone to improve their own self-confidence. The benefits are essentially endless and the actual process of building up your own confidence doesn’t have to be overwhelming.
By following the above seven ways to improve your self-confidence, you’ll be able to start your own journey to improvement. Just remember to have patience with yourself and to recognize that every person is on their own journey.
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