Self-confidence: Discover The 7 Keys To Improve It
In a world in which more and more things are demanded of us, working on improving levels of self-confidence continues to be the great pending issue
Having deficits in this aspect not only causes emotional pain, but also predisposes us to act like people who do not trust themselves. And that, in addition to being a source of problems, makes others treat us as if we needed help for anything.
Against this destructive dynamic, here are some starting points to improve levels of self-confidence and self-esteem and make the image you have of yourself work in your favor.
1. Coldly consider your options
Distance yourself from your own person and analyze the things you do as if you were a external observer It will help you recognize those situations and habits in which you self-sabotage. If you have had low self-esteem for a long time, it is very likely that you have entered a vicious cycle of anxiety and poor self-image that is difficult to get out of without trying. Therefore, taking a third-person point of view will help you see this vicious circle in its entirety and it will be easier to take action on the matter.
How to do this? Very easy. When you notice that there is something that creates anxiety and undermines your self-confidence, stop and think about the different options with which you can face this situation and choose the one that you think will benefit you in the medium or long term.
The key: overcome the tendency to stay in your bubble
Make sure that your conception of what is “best” in the long term is not influenced by your desire to opt for the comfortable solution If you want to do things differently than you usually do, you will have to get out of your comfort zone. For example, if you think that one of your academic works has received a lower score than expected, the easiest option may be to do nothing, but if you go to the correction review so that the person who has corrected it can Explain where you went wrong, you’re likely to learn things, although facing your mistakes may be uncomfortable.
This distanced point of view should not only act when considering your possibilities of action, but also as method to detect those thoughts that undermine your levels of self-confidence Having a good self-image is not about having an objective image of yourself (that would be impossible, with the amount of things you know about yourself), but about having a self-image that is useful to you.
What makes the difference when it comes to building a positive self-image is the selective attention . When you don’t think highly of yourself, all that information about you and your actions comes to you having passed through a filter that makes you see everything in a pessimistic light. In this way, you will tend to pay close attention to the things that go wrong for you, while your merits will go unnoticed. Since this bias is going to be there no matter what you do, take advantage of it! Detecting those thoughts about yourself that are unfair and recognizing them as such will help you downplay them.
Changing your thoughts to work in your favor
As you see the number of unrealistic negative thoughts about yourself, you will become more aware of your ability to actively participate in building adequate levels of self-confidence, because you will realize that what you knew about yourself was biased by your mood. You can also turn the situation around fighting back with positive thoughts and paying more attention to the things that speak well about you This will not only change your perception of your personality, but it will also make you act differently and, as a final effect, improve your levels of self-confidence.
3. Stop always comparing yourself to the same people
You must stop comparing yourself to other people. If you can’t help but compare yourself, it’s because you probably don’t know them well enough. Nowadays social networks and the media make it very easy for specific people to offer only their best side and keep many other things under lock and key. And all this, with or without a paid image consultant.
The importance of feeling comfortable with yourself
Think, for example, about the time you have dedicated to choosing the photos that you are going to upload to your virtual profiles, or the meticulousness with which you choose certain phrases. That’s what a lot of people you hear about every day constantly do, and It is very possible that many of them still care more than you about making sure that all this news speaks about a fascinating personality Therefore, working on your self-confidence should include a phase in which you go from idealizing these people to humanizing them, that is, considering their defects or the lack of information about them.
If our own way of thinking already has patterns of selective attention incorporated, the mass media and the Internet make this restricted access to a few data even more definitive. Which brings us to the next point.
4. Recognize the effects that propaganda has on your self-esteem
Self-confidence and self-esteem are closely related, and that is why You should look at both if you want to intervene on your possibilities of changing your attitude and emotional style However, there are very powerful propaganda and advertising apparatuses that are almost exclusively responsible for offering market niches to large organizations by creating insecurities in people. If you are a woman, for example, you will have realized that there is great media pressure to pressure women with the ideal of feminine beauty, something that ultimately does not exist.
Something similar happens with practically all the elements of our lives: architecture, cars, the personality of movie heroes, etc.
Detoxify yourself from the ideals of film and television
Realize that self-esteem, whether positive or negative, is something that can be learned and unlearned and influenced media and cultural elements It serves to see that a negative self-image does not reflect our own nature. Therefore, considering the social pressures that influence us is essential to maintain authenticity and not let advertising sink us emotionally.
5. Take care of your health
Although self-confidence is subjective, it is easier to make it positive if you introduce small objective changes into your life. Maintaining good habits of regular exercise, proper nutrition and hygiene is something easy to achieve and, in addition to providing you with benefits of all kinds, it can improve your self-esteem indirectly.
Healthy men in healthy corpore
When our body works better, everyone (and yourself) notices it. There is multiple studies that relate physical and mental well-being so you should not underestimate this point.
6. Sleep well
Not only because of what has already been said in the previous point, but because it is totally essential. Not sleeping properly produces tiredness and stress, which affects our way of interpreting things and, of course, also has an effect on postures that we adopt. It’s hard to trust yourself when you walk around with your head down all day.
7. Face realistic challenges and meet them
If you want to work on your self-confidence you should focus your actions thinking about the impact they will have on your self-esteem. In some way, you must leave messages to your future self so that it is the one who reads itself with kinder eyes (in part, that is what was explained in the first point).
The art of setting ambitious but attainable goals
Therefore, you should see which goals or objectives, far from being useful, only damage your self-image because they are unrealistic. If you want to make progress in this regard, focus on the goals you can tackle and go for them without leaving it for the next day.
