Building Self confidence

by Sandra Mokom | Feb 7, 2022 | Motivation

BUILDING SELF CONFIDENCE

Self confidence is an attitude about your skills and abilities. it means you accept and trust yourself and have a sense of control in your life. You know your strengths and weaknesses well and have a positive view of yourself. You set realistic expectations and goals, communicate assertively and can handle criticism. In this post on building self confidence, we will dive into the importance, types and causes of self confidence. Then, we will also talk about the ways on how to have a healthy self confidence.

Different factors contribute to influence our self confidence such as: genetics, personalities, life experiences, thoughts, age, health, comparison etc.

Why is self confidence important?

Self confidence or self esteem is very important in life as it is one of the determinants of success or failure. it is very important because it influences a person’s life choices. it plays a significant role in one’s motivation in life. Having a high self esteem can help you navigate through life with a positive attitude and outlook. On the other hand, having low self esteem might hold you back from achieving your goals and hinder you from maximizing your potential as you would navigate through life always having the perception that you are not good enough or you don’t have what it takes to succeed both at school or work.

Types of Self esteem

1. Low self esteem: people who have low self esteem, think of themselves as below average. They do not believe in themselves nor trust in their abilities neither do they place value on themselves. Low self esteem can affect a lot of things in one’s life. Some of the effects of low self esteem are poor relationships, addiction, depression and anxiety.
2. High self esteem: people  who have high self esteem tend to love and accept themselves. They believe in themselves and their abilities. They have the confidence that whatever challenges might come, they will be able to surpass it
3. Inflated self esteem: people who have high self esteem tend to think of themselves as better than other people and are always ready to underestimate others. This is actually a very negative type of self esteem because it prevents people who have it from forming meaningful and healthy relationships. They always want to be ahead and most times do not mind hurting people to achieve the success they desire, thinking that will bring them happiness.

What Causes Low Self confidence

Low self confidence often begins in childhood. Our teachers, friends, siblings, parents and even media send us positive and negative messages about ourselves. For some reason, the message that you are not good enough is the one that stays with you.

To boost your self confidence, you need to identify the negative beliefs you have about yourself then challenge them. You may tell yourself, “you’re too stupid to apply for a new job” for example or that “nobody cares about your.” Start to note this negative thoughts and write them on an piece of paper or in a diary. Ask yourself when you first started to think these thoughts.

Next, start to write some evidence that challenges these negative beliefs such as “I’m really good at cryptic crosswords” or “my sister calls for a chat every week”

Last but not the least, you could always check out our article on quotes that build self confidence, any time you need to be reminded of your self worth.