Granting yourself permission to go for that senior position, trying online dating or perhaps attending a high profile networking event can require far more confidence than some may care to admit.
If you would like to cultivate more confidence and build up the courage to go after what you want, below are some tools and techniques that you can apply to help your self-confidence to soar.
1 - The Power of A Smile
You may be wondering if I’ve lost my mind here, but I can assure you… It works. A smile has special powers! It can make a world of difference when you are greeted by a smiley, friendly sales assistant. A smile can instantly draw a person to you by establishing a wave of trust without even the exchange of words. Before preparing to speak in front of an audience, an interview or meeting somebody new, why not practice starting off with a smile and concluding with one. This approach can put your nerves at ease, give you a sense of being in control as well as endorphins being released which promotes an immediate feel good factor!
2 - Practice by Acting As If…
If you want to become more confident in any area, from public speaking to cooking, do the thing and you shall have the power. The principle here is A-C-T-I-O-N. Notice the first three letters which make up the word action is ACT. This denotes the importance that one of the most crucial ways to acquire more confidence is to do the thing you’ve been avoiding such as making the phone call, attending that scary networking event or taking a leap of faith. The key is to take action and to keep on doing so. Practice doesn’t make perfect, practice makes improvement! Remember anything worth doing is worth doing badly at first until you become better through the precious gift of TIME.
3 - Accept compliments and learn to compliment yourself
Learning to accept compliments is a great way to develop your self-confidence. The next time someone compliments you, instead of being dismissive, thank them and politely ask what they liked in particular. In turn, repay the gesture by complimenting others around you. Why not set yourself a daily goal of complimenting people wherever you go – in doing so you’ll start to feel a confidence boost.
4 - Setting Goals and Taking Action
Many people are yet to identify the correlation between goal setting, self-confidence and personal achievement. The more we successfully fulfil our promises and complete goals, the more our self- confidence increases. Setting yourself SMART (Specific Measureable Attainable Realistic Time bound) goals and taking action one step at a time will do marvelous things for your self-esteem. Certainly taking the first step can be daunting but remind yourself of your end goal; what impact will achieving your goal have in your life and the lives of those around you. As you begin to see progress and you accomplish your goals, start to stretch and challenge yourself more. If your goal was to exercise for 10 minutes a day, once you’ve done so consecutively, stretch it to 15mins, then 20 and so on to eventually move you away from your comfort zone. When you do achieve your goal, and this is very important, reward yourself. Let the thought of your reward accelerate your motivation!
5 - Reflect and Review
I cannot stress the psychological value that we can gain from taking the time to reflect and review our goals, outcomes and performances at the end of each day. The benefit of taking this approach provides you with the insight and the opportunity to ponder over things objectively. One typical human flaw in many of us can be to over analyse and be self-critical, doing so can be rather disempowering.
A good way to overcome this is by choosing to look at things with a positive and constructive eye. Some questions you can ask yourself are:
“What can I learn from this experience?"
“What worked particularly well, what didn’t go as well and why?”
There is real value in making notes, reflecting upon them and then implementing them.
If you are willing to act on the hints and tips above and apply them consistently, then dear reader get ready to see your confidence account blossom just remember...It starts with taking small action steps.
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