5 Tricks for Boosting Self-Confidence

Some days, we feel like life is delivering one kick in the teeth after another. We all have those days. When they happen, it’s normal to go into a mode of fluctuating self-confidence and second-guess all your life decisions.

When your self-doubt isn’t wholly a false alarm, you can use some practical strategies. For instance, if you regret poor decisions, you can try these tips for coping with regret. When you realize you need to improve in an area, it’s easier to do this if you’re prepared to focus on improving your habits rather than attempting to achieve perfection (aiming for perfection will likely backfire).

5 Surprising Strategies for Cultivating Confidence

Here are some of the mental tips and tricks to use. Give them a try and see if they work for you!

1. Ask yourself: “What did I find stressful at first but is now relatively easy?”

Fluctuations in self-confidence often happen when we embark on new, challenging projects. Try keeping a mental (or physical) list of intimidating and anxiety-provoking things when you were a beginner, but come easily now that you’re a pro.

Your examples can be big or small. For instance, maybe you’ve learned how to breeze through a work task that used to seem daunting. Or perhaps you have examples in the parenting domain. You may have worried about how your kid would cope with a new school, but eventually, things fell into place. Technology and money-related skills are good categories to consider when coming up with your examples. Online banking or working on your website may feel challenging initially, but you get to be a pro with practice.

Tip: You might find it challenging to remember examples when you’re in a low mood, so do some brainstorming when you’re in a better mood tomake a list you can refer to later.

2. Step back to gain perspective

When your self-confidence has taken a blow, it’s easy to go into a mental tailspin to the point where you start asking yourself if you’re a loser in life. At such times, step back and get some perspective. Are you a decent parent? Are you reasonably competent at your workplace? Can you manage other tasks reasonably well? What are your achievements?

Sometimes, a small mistake has a fairly big consequence, like forgetting to get your car serviced and landing with a costly repair. Balance your thinking. You may be perfect, but you’re probably not terrible either.

3. Ask yourself: “Who I am comparing myself to?”

When your self-confidence gets knocked down because of your decision, you may start comparing yourself with others.

First, look at the winners. They, too, made many mistakes and took several falls before the glory of success. And learn from them: how are they doing things?

However, if you are more realistic in your social comparison, you can see that you are doing pretty well. Of course, you may not be an absolute rockstar, but most of your choices are still good, and you’ve got many accomplishments. Everyone can accomplish outstanding achievements eventually, but these tend to be few and far between, even for high achievers, and they’re interspersed with roadblocks, mistakes and ordinary results. Success is a long haul, and you’ll realize that there’s no ultimate destination when you can say, “I’ve arrived.”

Everyday objects of social comparison include siblings, Facebook/ Instagram posts of friends, classmates, and people you read about or watch online. Sometimes you might compare yourself to people younger than you and think, “I should be doing better than I am at my age.”

But it’s heartening to know that accomplished people talk about experiencing moments of phases of low self-esteem. It shows that behind the scenes, even successful people are still making plenty of life mistakes and have patterns of self-sabotaging behaviour that frustrate them. We’re all human, and life is messy for everyone.

4. Know that feeling self-doubt doesn’t necessarily mean you’re on the wrong track

Self-doubt is an evolved signalling system of our emotional makeup. It helps us to evaluate carefully what we’re doing. However, it can be a misleading signal. The system produces many false alarms, especially for people prone to anxiety or those misusing substances. Feeling self-doubt doesn’t necessarily mean you’re on the wrong track. It often means you’re confronting a complex, new challenge. While self-doubt feels uncomfortable, it has some benefits too.

5. Know what you need to weather the storm and bounce back

Know what works for you when you need healing to get through emotional challenges. You might choose social strategies, like contacting friends or debriefing about stressful situations with your partner. You might have a physical way of coping with stress, like having an early night, napping, exercise, slow breathing, yoga, or meditation. Or, consider your favourite behavioural coping strategies, like treating yourself to the food you like or going to a movie. If you feel socially isolated, consider reaching out to more distant social connections, such as colleagues you know but aren’t particularly close to.

A very effective way to manage low self-esteem is to consult a therapist. Sometimes, prolonged and recurrent low confidence issues may be linked to other problems, which we may not be able to identify and need support to work through them.

Keep in mind that anything you tend to do when stressed makes you feel worse, like staying up very late. Identify and avoid self-sabotaging patterns like these. It’s natural to want to stay up when you need to wind down from your day, but if it’s causing issues, you might need to start your wind-down process earlier in the evening. For example, on days when you’re feeling stressed, take a bath at 7 p.m. instead of 9 p.m.

It’s life, after all!

Pick your favourite few tips from this article and try them out next time you doubt yourself and your decisions. See what works for you. Not every strategy will work for everyone.

Life is full of ups and downs. A ‘down’ is usually followed by an ‘up’. Help yourself get there quicker and easier with these tips!

If you or a loved one is struggling with any psychological issues,click here,  call 9000850001 for an online or in-person appointment with an expert.