Self-confidence is an ever changing part of life. It requires a lot of introspection and self-love, trying new things that might make us a little nervous, but ultimately coming to terms with who we are and who we want to be. When we start taking action steps towards becoming our best new self, we also inevitably start seeing a boost in our self-confidence.

So, today, I wanted compile a list of just few steps we can take to help us on our journey towards becoming a better version of ourselves, and ultimately boosting our self-confidence along the way.

Visualization

For several years I taught college level communication and public speaking courses, however, I viewed the classes I taught more like self-confidence building courses. Therefore, one of the main concepts we focused on was visualization. Ultimately, I wanted my students to objectively visualize themselves at the current moment, then who they wanted to be, and finally, the steps it would take to get there (there being the new self). You see, you need to be able to picture and image in your head of the person you’d be proud to be before you can ever know what steps it would take to get there. Similarly, when we struggle with self-confidence, we’re usually struggling with our own self-perception. For this reason, it’s so crucial that we take a step back and see yourself objectively, because in doing so, we are able to set aside the negative self-talk and all our insecurities, and rather focus on the person we know we can be and the steps it will take to get there.

Affirm Yourself

I’m a “words of affirmation” girl. So, it should come as no surprise that one of my biggest struggles was needing to be affirmed by others. I did so many things and tried to make myself the person I thought others would want to be, just so they would tell me I had worth. It wasn’t until I realized that I had the power to affirm myself with uplifting statements, as well as by focusing on what the truth of God’s word said about me. In doing this, we are able to come to a better place mentally so we no longer need validation from others. To start doing this for yourself, try looking in the mirror, and instead of picking apart what needs to look better, focus on complimenting yourself out loud on at least 1-3 things. They can based on your appearance, or your heart and personality, or things your good at…it doesn’t matter how you compliment yourself, it’s just important that you start saying those affirming words instead of focusing on the negative. If you really absolutely can’t get over some things about your appearance, it’s always possible to look into places like https://columbiariverdentistry.com/ if you aren’t happy with your smile. However, the cool thing about learning to affirm yourself is that overtime your brain will start accepting your positive statements as truth, which will slowly but surely help you overcome the confidence issues you may once have had about your appearance. At least I found this to be true in my experience.

Do Something that Makes You Nervous

If you’re feeling insecure then you should know that the people around you most often do as well. Maybe they don’t have the same insecurities you do, but we’re all struggling with something. One of the most detrimental mental games we play with ourselves is overestimating all the great things about the people around us and underestimating ourselves. You are far better than you give yourself credit for! So, in dealing with this myself, I’ve found that one of the best ways to overcome my insecurities is to deal with them head-on. To do something that makes me nervous, at least once a day. Maybe that’s complimenting a strangers outfit because your shy and it makes you nervous to talk to new people…or maybe that’s trying a new activity you’ve always wanted to do but never thought you’d have the ability to do. I never thought I could run long distance, and now I’ve run 3 half-marathons! It’s all about what we tell ourselves we can and cannot do. And yes, maybe we’ll fail sometimes. Or maybe that person won’t reciprocate your kind word, but at the end of the day it doesn’t matter. We worked towards overcoming our insecurities, and therefore, it was worth it. If we continue to do this we will inevitably have successful moments, and those moments will lead us to feeling so empowered.

Set Yourself up for Success

The final way we can help strengthen our self-confidence is by focusing on our successful moments, and let go of the moments we’ve failed. I have the worst habit of focusing on that one moment I did something wrong or the few times someone has told me something negative about myself, rather than focusing on ALL the other good moments. Far too often we become discouraged about our abilities because we’re focusing on the wrong things, and when we focus on the wrong things we start to set goals that are too big and that we can’t actually achieve at the moment. Rather than setting goals we know we can accomplish and which will allow us to accomplish the overall goal in time, we try to jump right into more than we can chew…which leaves us feeling even more like we’re not good enough. So, instead, why don’t we embrace the process. There is truly something so beautiful and empowering about watching yourself progress grow overtime, rather than just getting what we want right when we want it.

So to conclude, remember that you have the ability to change the things about yourself that you’re not happy with. You also have control of your self-confidence. It may not seem like it right now, and it may seem like the person you are is so far from the person you want to be. But you’re not going to get any closer to that new version of yourself if you allow that to stop you. My prayer for you is that you would ask God to reveal to you’re the insecurities you may not be dealing with and that He would reveal the truth of His word to you in order to help you overcome those insecurities. You are good. You have worth…and you are so loved by the only One who truly matters.

Praying for you today and always, friends.

Love in Christ,

Helen Elizabeth