Being able to express your feelings freely, saying whatever comes to your mind without the fear of judgement is perhaps what characterizes the word ‘confidence’. It comes from a Latin word ‘fidere’ which means ‘to trust’ and is defined as the state of being certain either that a prediction is correct or that a chosen course of action is the best or most effective. As a personality trait, confidence can be referred to as self-confidence. Self-confidence describes the attitudes and beliefs people hold regarding their abilities and strengths. Both concepts are overlapping and distinct at the same time.
Confidence is one of the most desirable personality traits. To sustain in this era of cut-throat competition, confidence is very important. It makes us feel ready for new challenges and experiences. A confident person always looks forward to new opportunities and never gives up easily. Even when faced with big challenges, confident people believe in themselves and their abilities. Above all, confidence is the faith that keeps us going. However, a person with a lack of confidence is not open to new opportunities, has less or no belief in his or her abilities and often end up missing out on some adventurous things in life. Some of them are not even able to reach their full potential in life.
The concept of individual differences says that ‘no two individuals are alike’ which means that each individual has different personality traits. Some people are high on confidence while others are extremely low, the latter more prone to low self-esteem and even anxiety and depression at times.
WAYS TO BECOME MORE CONFIDENT:
SELF-ACCEPTANCE: It refers to the feeling of satisfaction with oneself and one’s abilities despite deficiencies and regardless of past choices. Self-acceptance and confidence go hand-in-hand. A person who learns to be satisfied with his or her potential tends to have more confidence than others. With self-acceptance comes the concept of self-love which means loving oneself for whatever you are and by embracing your flaws.
REWARDING YOURSELF: Every time you do a task involving more courage and confidence, reward yourself. The love/want for reward may help us accomplish otherwise impossible goals. It is a good way of encouraging oneself, which is necessary to keep going.
OVERCOME SELF-DOUBT: With most of the people, a voice at the back of the head holds them back forcing them to think over something they are about to do. This is self-doubt. Overcoming such type of habit increases the chances of success in the given tasks.
CLARITY OF MIND: Wrong perspectives mostly tend to store information that confirms low self -esteem. Clarity in understanding makes us open to more opportunities and choices thus helping in re-building confidence.
OPTIMISTIC APPROACH: Expecting positive outcomes of the situation increases the chance of things going right. Having a positive image of oneself also comes under this. Imagining the situation of how happy you’ll be on the accomplishment of certain things makes one more confident from inside as well.
CHANGING MINDSET: Confidence does not only come from succeeding every time but also from getting up and starting again in times of failures. Each setback is another step towards growth and gradually contributes to increasing confidence.
SAY NO TO COMPARISON: Lack of confidence comes from a gap in where you see yourself and where you think you should be. Avoiding comparison thus helps in ignoring the negative sides of things in our lives and prevents the feeling of inferiority and disgust.
GRATITUDE: Seeing the glass as half-filled rather than half empty is what we can call being grateful or thankful. Quite often we ignore some little positive things that happen to us on the way. Being grateful for those little things increases trust that everything happens for good and thus making an individual ready to face every type of situation with more confidence.
EXERCISE: Apart from all other measures of increasing confidence, exercising is the best. Exercising helps in staying focused, memory retention and managing stress. In a healthy body resides a healthy mind, thus claiming that a confident mind will only rest in a well-balanced body.
The confidence level goes up and down for all of us, but what makes a difference is how we react in that situation. One should learn to balance the level of confidence as overconfidence may even lead to failure at times. However, an appropriate level of confidence is also needed for a stress-free life and to tackle daily life hassles. All one needs to do is, start believing in oneself and see how things change gradually.
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Very effective work
Great work 👍
Some insightful points made👍🏽
Very informative and apt
Written so well. Very helpful for people to overcome confidence related matters. Keep writing!