This is an awesome list of things you need to practice thinking about. These can give you great perspective, and will definitely help the next time you're feeling a little down and need a boost of confidence.
“Whether you believe you can or believe you can’t, you’re right.” – Author Unknown.
Do you believe in yourself and your abilities? Do you feel that you can achieve anything you put your mind to? Do you wake up every day feeling accomplished, confident, and passionate?
If you have a heartbeat, the answer is probably “heck no!”
Don’t worry – you’re not alone in this. Even the strongest amongst us suffer days of self-doubt and depression. We aren’t always sure we can get over the next hurdle, and we beat ourselves up when we miss the mark. It’s normal, but that doesn’t make it any less painful.
Luckily, self-confidence is something you can exercise like a muscle.
If you’re interested in getting closer to the vision at the top of this article, here are ten tips that will help you boost your self-confidence and hush your negative self-talk, no matter what the day holds!
1. Know Your Purpose
When you understand your intentions for the day, you have a good reason to feel great about yourself.
Without purpose, we are likely to feel down. If you plan and decide and “set an intention” for each day, though, you infuse yourself with purpose and give yourself the energy you need to power through your day with an objective in mind.
2. Surround Yourself With Wonderful People
“Before you diagnose yourself with depression or low self-esteem, first make sure that you are not, in fact, just surrounding yourself with a$$holes.” – Unknown
As much as grumpy, crabby people dampen the spirit, positive people heighten your self-esteem. They give you support, affirm your goals, and help you see the brighter side of life. They’re also a good source of love and laughter! With this in mind, be sure you’re surrounding yourself with positive people.
3. Make Your Environment Positive as Well
Say no to depressing clutter and disorganized events and surroundings. They remind you of negative emotions, damage your sense of peace, and muddle the entire picture of your life. Instead, surround yourself with beauty, calm, and cleanliness. This will have a marked effect on your mental and emotional well-being.
4. Never Compare Yourself to Others
You are you. Enough said. So why try to be someone you’re not?
Or worse, follow someone’s footsteps?
You have your own thoughts, body, actions, and dreams. Heck, you even have your name, a pet cat, and your own iPhone. So why even try to compete with anyone else out there?
The more you can settle into your uniqueness and individuality, the happier and more at peace you’ll be with your life. This is a process, no doubt, but coming to appreciate your own “you-factor” is an essential part of a healthy outlook.
5. Write Down your Accomplishments
Remember those stars your teacher gave classmate for his excellence in fourth-grade math? Made you feel bad you never got one, huh? So what if you did get one? You would be rejoicing, right? The good news is that it’s not too late. Instead of striving for gold stars from someone else, give yourself gold stars in your life by writing down your accomplishments and taking time to recognize the little things, each day. It’s a simple yet powerful practice.
6. Sweat it Out
Jog or walk, dance or do anything else that makes you sweat and smile.
Every time you have a good sweat session, you release endorphins that help you feel healthy and happy.
In addition to the mental boost you get from working out, sweating is also great for your body and skin, so you’ll look great, as well!
7. Be Kind to Yourself
Have fun, take a break, lighten up.
Don’t live like your life is one big deadline or work like tomorrow’s Armageddon.
Enjoy what you do, and carve out some time each day to do nothing. In other words, treat yourself like you’d treat a precious friend in need of some love.
It’s a radical suggestion, but it’ll change your life.
8. Celebrate Your Achievements
We live busy lives, and it’s easy to get so wrapped up in looking down the pipe for the next thing that we forget to celebrate the good things that are already coming our way. With this in mind, make a conscious effort to start celebrating the tiny wins in your life. It doesn’t matter if you had a good conversation with your boss or met your fitness goals for the week – take some time out to acknowledge our hard work!
9. Run Your Own Race
It’s so easy to compare ourselves to everyone else.
If the guy over in accounting has a new car and a nice vacation, you should too, right? Wrong.
We’re all individuals and marrying ourselves to ideas about what we should be or why we should be that way won’t help anyone. Instead, put on your blinders, keep your head down, and run your own race. Push yourself according to your goals and expectations, not the outside world’s pressures.
10. Be Grateful
Ready to create the life you want? Try being grateful for the one you have.
In recent years, researchers have found that grateful people are happier, healthier, and more generous than people who tend to focus on the negative. And this makes sense – when you focus on abundance, abundance will come your way.
With this in mind, start keeping a gratitude journal or simply focusing on saying “thank you” more often. Your surroundings and your mental state will thank you for it.
Our team at The Fitness Tribe often collaborates together to produce content. Many times the content is not written by a single author, instead it is usually a team effort.