Easy Ways To Boost Your Confidence

You want to feel confident, right?
You want to be able to walk around, knowing you’re an
awesome person and truly believing it. You see
everyone else doing it – strutting about full of
themselves – but for you, it just doesn’t seem to come
naturally. Whenever you try to act confident, your
thoughts seem to end up back on your insecurities.
Every moment passing is a moment you’ve spiraled
deeper into this idea of insecurity and despair.
Stop.
Everyone gets insecure at
times, that’s life. But
existing in insecurity?
That’s a habit that you
learn. A learned thought-
pattern. You can do
something about it. In fact,
here are 11 things you can
do to boost your
confidence right now.

1. Smile more
Sounds weird, right?
Why would smiling improve your confidence? It’s
actually pretty simple. Smiling makes you feel good. It
fools your mind into being happier. When you feel
good, you’re more likely to think you – as a whole
being – are good.
So by elevating your mood, you elevate your
confidence. You become less concerned with your
flaws, or what you perceive to be flaws. You become
less fixated on that self-damaging inner monologue,
and more absorbed in appreciating where you
currently are. Just have a read of this article to
understand how powerful smiling actually is!
2. Recognise your short-comings
Part of being confident is knowing who you are, what
you are, and what you do well. Another part of
confidence is knowing what you don’t do so well. Why
is it important to know what you don’t do well at? For
multiple reasons:
1. You can improve. Knowing you don’t do well at
something gives you the insight to actively do
something about it. If you’re unaware that you
don’t do something very well, you won’t be able to
work on it – it’s as simple as that.
2. You know what you’re capable of. By knowing this,
you can easily avoid situations where your
confidence may take a blow by these short-
comings because you’re already aware of them!
3. Knowing where you fall short ultimately shines
light on where you excel. We can’t all excel at
absolutely everything, but this just helps us to
appreciate where we excel even more.
4. We can hand over what we can’t do well, to those
who will do it well.
So while it may sound contradictory to feeling
confident, ultimately it opens us up to the reality of
being human. It frees you from the need to be a
perfectionist. That in itself will sky-rocket your
confidence because you also realise that everyone else
is going through the exact same thing!
3. Wear your best dress
This point isn’t literal, but of course it can be. It’s just a
cute way of saying, “wear what makes you feel good.”
We all have a ‘best dress.’ It’s not always a dress, of
course, it can be a shirt, a tie, a pair of shoes, or
whatever. It doesn’t matter what it is. Just find that
object that makes you feel good and wear it. Soak it in,
knowing you look good. Feeling good shows; the
confidence oozes out of you.
It’s a good one when you need that little extra kick of
confidence. Just read this interview with David Sarwer,
a contributing researcher for the Center for Human
Appearance, for an overview of the science behind
looking good making you feel good.
4. Ditch the comparisons
You are you. That’s all that can be expected of you.
There’s really no point in comparing the unique person
that is yourself to someone else. Just remember:
You have not walked the same path as the person
you are comparing yourself to.
You have not had the same opportunities as the
person you are comparing yourself to.
You do not possess the same set of tools as the
person you are comparing yourself to.
There will be places that you excel, where others will
fall short. There will be places that you fall short,
where others will excel. This is life. Let it go, and simply
be the best you that you can be. What everyone else is
doing really isn’t a standard to hold yourself to.
5. Let go of other people’s expectations
A lot of insecurity stems from holding yourself to a
standard that someone else made up. Just like the
above point, no one has walked in your shoes and you
have not walked in theirs. What other people expect of
you is irrelevant. It should never be how you define
your worth. You know what you’re going through, you
know what you’ve been through, so only you truly can
know what it is you are capable of.
Free yourself from other people’s expectations. You
be the decider of your worth. You be the decider of
the expectations. When you can reclaim this power,
you’ll realise that a lot of this unease in yourself has
been because you’ve been trying to prove yourself to
someone who can never truly understand you.
6. List 10 things that you like about yourself
Go ahead, do it. 10 things that you like about yourself.
No matter how silly or insignificant they may seem.
Done it? Great. See how easy it is to break away from
putting yourself down?
Continue to build yourself up. Make it a daily habit to
list the things you like about yourself. Watch as your
confidence soars.
7. Be prepared
When you are prepared, you’re going to be more
confident with the situation you’re going into. For
example, say you were going camping. It would be
pretty nerve-wracking to go into it without any gear,
any preparation, and no idea of where you’re going,
right?
Now say you’ve taken the time to get all your gear
together, establish an action plan, and know where
you’re heading. You’ll be a lot more confident going
into it.
You can relate this to any everyday situation. If you’re
going to a party, be prepared by looking good, feeling
good and having some conversation topics in mind. If
you’re giving a speech, be prepared by knowing your
speech. If you’re giving a presentation, practice
presenting it. Preparation will lead you to security in
the situation. (Confidence!)
8. Gear the conversation to a topic you know
If you commonly find yourself feeling insecure in
social situations, and as though you have nothing to
contribute to conversations, there’s a simple trick to
fix that: Talk about what you know.
Obviously you don’t need to walk up and just start
aimlessly talking about it, just strike up a casual
conversation with someone about something they’ve
said. Once you’re talking to them about what they said,
relate what it is you know to what it is they said. (It’s
not as hard as it sounds.)
There are infinite ways to relate topics to each other.
Just find the overlap. Practice it on friends first if you
don’t feel confident doing it with strangers, every step
you take towards practising this will increase your
confidence in social situations exponentially.
9. Identify your passions in life
There’s something about passion that brings out the
most complex beauty within people. That moment
when your eyes are full of awe and wonder,
completely captivated by the moment, caught up in an
inner sense of purpose and a burning desire.
When you know your passion in life, it gives you a lot
more sense of purpose. It gives you direction. It gives
you meaning. It gives you security. Ultimately, these all
translate into one thing… Confidence.
If you know what you’re passionate about, you’ll
always have a reserve of confidence at your disposal.
10. Ask other people for their opinion on you
It’s easy to get trapped in your head, and be convinced
all of these flaws that you see are how everyone else
sees you. Luckily, it’s pretty simple to remedy this self-
damaging thought pattern. Go to someone you’re
close with and ask them what they think of you. Listen
to all the loving things they have to say about you.
Listen as they point out all of your awesome points,
that they see, rather than the flaws that you see.
Once they’ve given you their opinion of you, try to
understand it. Try to accept it. Try to realise that very
few people, if any at all, are looking at you and seeing
these flaws you’ve identified in your head. They’re
seeing you when you’re not caught up in all this self-
damaging monologue. There’s a beauty to you that
you’re often blind to.
11. Be yourself
As simple as it is, and as contradictory as it may sound:
being yourself is the ultimate source of confidence.
When you are simply yourself, you’ll realise that all the
masks you’ve worn were only ever holding you back
from being confident.
Owning who you are frees you from comparisons and
judgement, because you are what you are – it doesn’t
 matter what anyone else thinks.
Ultimately confidence is something you exude when
you unlearn the habit of constant insecurity. Deep
down, you’re aware you have talents, worth and a
unique value to bring to every situation. You just need
to peel off the insecurity that you learned and allow
that confidence to shine.
If you’ve got anything to add, then please just drop it
in the comments below. If you think you know
someone that could benefit from this, just share it!

Little Habits That Steal Your HappinessWithout You Knowing It

You ultimately become what you repeatedly do. If your
habits aren’t helping you, they’re hurting you. Here are
a few examples of the latter that will steal your
happiness if you let them:

1. Focusing on everyone’s story except your
own.
Don’t be so satisfied with the success stories of others
and how things have gone for them that you forget to
write your own. Unfold your own tale and bring it to
life. You have everything you need to become what
you are capable of becoming. Incredible change
happens when you decide to take control. This means
consuming less and creating more. It means refusing
to let others do your thinking, talking, and deciding for
you. It means learning to respect and use your own
ideas and instincts to write your passage.
If you want your life story to soar to new heights,
you’ve got to clear a path, reduce the time-sinks and
burdens weighing you down, and pick up the things
that give you wings. Keep your best wishes and your
biggest goals close to your heart and dedicate time to
them every day. If you truly care about what you do
and you work diligently at it, there’s almost nothing
you can’t accomplish.
2. Waiting for the perfect moment.
Don’t buy into the myth of the perfect moment.
Moments aren’t perfect; they’re what you make them.
So many people wait around for the stars to align to
do what they’re here to do. The perfect moment, the
perfect opportunity, the perfect state of being, etc.
Wake up! These states of perfection are myths. They
do not exist.
Your ability to grow to your highest potential is directly
related to your willingness to act in the face of
imperfection. You will come to succeed not byfinding a
perfect moment, but by learning to see and use life’s
imperfections perfectly.
3. Working for nothing more than a paycheck.
Work without interest is imprisonment. Even if you
aren’t super-passionate about your work, you’ve got to
at least be interested in it. When you design a lifestyle
in which your work is something you suffer through
daily strictly to pay your bills, you end up spending
your entire life wishing you had someone else’s.
Think about it. This is your life; your work will fill a
large percentage of it. It’s not all about the money; it’s
about you. Ignore the propaganda, especially from
people who say, “Don’t let your work define you.”
Reverse this message and mediate on it: “I will do work
that defines me.” When the essence of who you are
defines at least some slice of the work you do for a
living, that work generates fulfillment.
Bottom line: Interest in your work puts quality in your
output and happiness in your mind. Don’t settle for a
paycheck. Shuffle around until you find work that
interests you.
4. Harboring feelings of hate.
As Martin Luther King Jr. so profoundly said,
“Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do
that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do
that.” Truth be told, when we harbor feelings of hate,
it eventually gets the best of us. It takes control of us.
We forget why we hate, what we hate, and whom we
hate – we simply hate for the sake of hating. And then,
naturally, we begin to hate ourselves too.
Everything and everyone you hate rents permanent
space in both your head and heart. So if you want to
eliminate something or someone from your mind,
don’t hate. Instead, disconnect yourself, move on, and
don’t look back.
5. Holding tight to worries and fears.
Someday when you look back over your life you’ll
realize that nearly all of your worries and anxious
fears never came to fruition – they were completely
unfounded. So why not wake up and realize this right
now. When you look back over the last few years, how
many opportunities for joy did you destroy with
needless worry and negativity? Although there’s
nothing you can do about these lost joys, there’s
plenty you can do about the ones that are still to
come.
You will find that it’s necessary to let some things go
simply for the reason that they’re heavy on your heart
and soul. Let go of them. Don’t clamp shackles to your
own ankles. It’s incredibly easy to enjoy more of your
life right now, no matter what the situation. It’s just a
matter of letting go of the layers of nonsense that are
weighing you down.
Let go of your worries and fears, of your rage and
jealousy, of your need to always be right and control
others. Let go of your pretentiousness and your need
to have everything your way. Underneath all these
layers of nonsense there is a happy, productive
person. When you start peeling them off and simply
appreciating everything for what it is, life can be
wonderfully fulfilling.
6. Dwelling on difficulties.
A bad day is just a bad day. Choose not to make it
anything more. Times of adversity will inevitably affect
the conditions in which you live and work; yet you
don’t have to let it affect who you are and where
you’re headed. Take note of the setbacks and adjust to
them, but don’t expand on them by making them a
bigger part of your life.
Every day brings new lessons and new possibilities.
There is always a way to take the next step forward on
the path you’ve chosen. Events may be terrible and
inescapable at times, but you always have choice – if
not when, then how, you may endure and proceed
onward.
7. Constantly seeking fleeting contentment.
There are two variations of contentment in life –
fleeting and enduring. The fleeting type is derived
from instants of material comfort, while the enduring
type is attained through the gradual growth of your
mind. At a glimpse it might be difficult to decipher one
from the other, but as time rolls on it becomes vividly
obvious that the latter is far superior.
Enduring contentment sustains itself through life’s ups
and downs, because through them your mind remains
confident and at peace. On the other hand, when life’s
fleeting changes have the ability to ruffle your mind
into a frenzy, even the most elaborate physical
comforts won’t make you any happier for very long.
8. Trying to make a big difference all at once.
If you want to make a difference in the world, start
with the world around you. Making a big difference all
at once is usually impossible, and the process of trying
is extremely stressful. However, instantly making a
difference in a few lives is entirely possible and usually
fairly easy. You just have to focus on one person at a
time and start with the one closest to you.
Work to make a bunch of small splashes, and let the
ripples spread naturally. If you want to change a
person’s mind or mood, sometimes you have to
change the minds or moods of the people around
them first. For instance, if you make one person smile,
their smile just might make others smile too. In this
subtle way, you can touch the masses with your
thoughtfulness without stressing yourself out.
9. Holding on to someone who hurts you.
Sometimes you have to walk away from people, not
because you don’t care, but because they don’t. When
someone hurts you time and time again, accept the
fact that they don’t care about you. It’s a tough pill to
swallow, but it’s necessary medicine. Do NOT strive to
impress them any further. Waste not another second
of your time trying to prove something to them.
Nothing needs to be proven. Do not act with any
thought of them ever again.
10. Over-amplifying the importance of
physical attractiveness.
Infatuating yourself with someone simply for what
they look like on the outside is like choosing your
favorite food based on color instead of taste. It makes
no sense. It’s innate, invisible, unquantifiable
characteristics that create lasting attraction.
Just as some people enjoy the smell of mint, while
others prefer the scent of cinnamon, there is an
undeniable, magnetic draw that attracts you to the
qualities of certain people, places, and things.
Sometimes it’s even the scars your soul shares with
them that reels you in and creates the very hinges that
hold you together in the long run.