Boost your self-confidence!

Everyone feels insecure at times Life is full of ups and downs which play a part in developing your self-confidence. But how can you motivate yourself to stand up after life knocks you down? Check out this blog.

Self-confidence, what is it?

Self-confidence is all about the image you possess about your personal abilities to perform on different life areas. Based on several life experiences you will develop a vision on your intelligence level, your social circle, your contribution to society and your physical appearance. Self-confidence consists of a balance between skills and dignity. On the one hand you can focus on your strengths which help you overcome challenges. Additionally you can enhance your self-confidence by improving certain skills. On the other hand you can try to accept yourself, even with flaws. When you have had multiple negative experiences in interaction with your environment in your life it could be the case that it had diminished your self-confidence. Luckily, self-confidence can be built up. But how? Below you will find tools to boost your self-confidence.

Tackle insecure thoughts

Insecure feelings can be caused by negative thoughts about yourself. So it’s important to take a close look at these thoughts and make a change. A first step can be taken by creating more self-awareness of the negative thoughts. Try to discover which thoughts go underneath those insecure feelings. If you got a clearer overview on this part you can question the reliability of those thoughts. You can investigate the thoughts by asking yourself challenging questions. Did you maybe make a fallacy? Did you draw conclusions too quickly or think in terms of ‘all’ or ‘nothing’? For instance: ‘I can never do anything right’, but is this really the case? You can also ask yourself if in the past there were situations that prove the negative thoughts wrong. Think back of successful experiences in the past. For example: When I thought I would fail on the exam and not being smart enough, the contrary happened. I received a beautiful grade.

Sky high standards

People with a negative self-image often tend to set high standards. They feel like being perfect is the only way to feel content enough about themselves. The fact is, it’s difficult to keep up with high standards, which has continuous feelings of self-disappointment as a consequence. Most of the times people set higher standards for themselves as they would for a friend in a similar situation. It can be helpful to learn how to treat yourself as a friend. Whenever the stern voice in yourself arises you can fight it by talking to it the same way as you would talk to a friend.

Focus on your strengths

Which beautiful qualities do you possess? Try to list them. In order to help you create the list, following website can be useful: Learn Your Character Strengths & Personal Traits | VIA Institute (viacharacter.org). Can you remind yourself of concrete examples when those personal qualities came into practice? For instance: did you help a friend in need? Furthermore, you can ask people close to you what they appreciate about you.

After these tips on how to work on insecure thoughts, high standards and personal strengths, I hope I’ve helped you to create a better self-image Would you like to make more progress on self-confidence? We would love to support you at Siggie. The student coaches are there for you.

Would you like to read more on how to enhance your self-confidence? On the website of Mentaal Beter additional tips will be given.

Meer zelfvertrouwen krijgen doe je zó! (Dutch article) – Mentaal Beter