When negative people around call us “failure”, “good for nothing”, “stupid”, “dumb”, “not good looking enough”, or anything else, we tend to believe them very easily.
It normally happens when we are young and growing up. Most of us might have heard such negative adjectives from our parents, teachers, siblings, friends, relatives, managers, and many others.
As a result, we get filled with self-doubt, and become too self critical.
Until a few years ago, I was my own worst enemy. I was constantly downgrading myself. I didn’t miss a single opportunity to criticize myself, and was constantly getting better and better at it.
Even at times when people were applauding my qualities and skills, I was digging in deep to find my faults even in the positive situations.
It might look ordinary but it was a life changing finding for me. I was socializing, appreciating people for their accomplishments, and even small positive behaviors, feeling envious at times, but was UNSTOPPABLY being harsh on myself.
This behavior was largely damaging my inner strength and self confidence.
One day, I realized that this habit was killing me slowly, and proving to be a biggest hurdle in my progress and success. I decided to sit on the other side, and look for my strengths and achievements.
Here are 5 Powerful Ways to Build Your Self Confidence which I used with huge success
1) I worked up a list of 20 good things about me that made me AWESOME
I was getting impressed by many people around, but ignoring the most special person in the whole world, myself. My respect and affection belonged to me before anyone else.
“If I won’t respect and love myself, I would not be able to truly value others”; the day I realized this fact, I made a list of 20 things that made me “me”; that were unique to me.
Ever since, I do this regularly. Whenever I learn a new skill, or discover a talent in me, I acknowledge it, reward myself for it, look into the mirror, and say “Great job. I love you for this”.
And my “self love” is increasing day after day.
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2) Exposed myself to new and different experiences
I started moving out of my comfort zone almost each day. I regularly did things that made me scared and uncomfortable. Taking new challenges and overcoming them successfully enhanced my self-worth.
3) Developed my old passions
Identifying things that you like to do in a flow without getting bored of, is a good starting place. Nurturing my hobbies and passions made me feel ecstatic about myself. I don’t do them for any professional good though, just to feel good about.
4) Changed my handwriting
This is something you may wonder about.
Several years ago I discovered about a study called “Graphotherapy” or “Handwriting therapy”, using which we can change certain personality traits in ourselves that we would like to modify.
Graphotherapy is a vast field; however I can share right now what worked for me well.
I changed the way I wrote the letter “t” in order to improve my self-image. Before going further, please take a look at the image below:
Did you notice? How you cross your t-bar, makes a big difference.
Where do you cross your t-bar?
Raising the t-bar is the simplest-ever exercise to raise self-worth. It would need conscious practice. It may seem too much work, but it’s rewarding. Trust me. I tried it.
5) Sincerely helped people
We share a common planet. So, we all are connected in a special way. The nature has created a bond of humanity among us all. We feel good about ourselves when we are sincere, kind, and helpful to the co-existing members of earth, especially to those who are deprived, and really need our attention and help.
Nothing feels better than helping people living better. It immensely enhances our self-image.
The Result?
My outlook towards myself completely transformed. I started loving myself and my life much more than ever.
Seriously, I never looked back ever since.
How is life doing? Astoundingly flourishing!!!
Don’t believe it? Give these tips a try, and find out yourself.
P.S. I am sure you will Totally Enjoy this Podcast Interview I had recorded a few months ago about unusual ways to increase Confidence.
9 replies to "5 Powerful Ways to Build Self Confidence"
Thank you for sharing these wonderful thoughts Alison. When I first found out about grapho therapy, I was quite skeptical with this concept. But as I tried, and made it a practice, it helped me a lot to heighten my self esteem.
These are such practical tips to build self-confidence. I’ve always found that new experiences and challenges help increase my confidence. It’s all about stepping out of your comfort zone!
These are such great tips! The handwriting one is so interesting, but it makes sense. Thanks for sharing these!
Really fascinating about handwriting. Now I’m going to start being way more aware when I am writing.
Good vibes and bad vibes are so contagious! It is so important to surround yourself with a good support system! I never thought about the hand writing trick before. That was neat.
Those are some good tips. I hadn’t heard of the handwriting one though. I have read that handwriting can tell an expert what emotions you’re feeling at the time of writing and some say it can help figure out personality of the writer but I hadn’t heard of changing personality. Interesting!
I never would have considered the handwriting tip; that’s very interesting to consider! I’m glad I stumbled upon your list.
I’ve come a long way with my confidence. I have to say having new experiences and connecting with new people has helped me alot
I like these tips. Especially about being intentional to trying new experiences. I definitely am not confident in new scenarios, so I just need to try them!