Self-confidence: discover the 7 keys to improve it

How to gain self-confidence to achieve your goals?

In a world where more and more demands are being made of us, working on improving self-confidence levels is still the great unfinished business..

Having deficits in this aspect not only causes emotional pain, but also predisposes us to act like people who do not trust themselves. And that, besides being a source of problems, makes others treat us as if we needed help for anything.

Tips for working on your self-confidence

Against this destructive dynamic, here are some starting points to improve your levels of self-confidence and self-esteem and to make your self-image more positive.Self-confidence: discover the 7 keys to improve it

How to gain self-confidence to achieve your goals?

In a world where more and more demands are being made of us, working on improving self-confidence levels is still the great unfinished business.Having deficits in this aspect not only causes emotional pain, but also predisposes us to act like people who do not trust themselves. And that, besides being a source of problems, makes others treat us as if we needed help for anything.

Tips for working on your self-confidence

Against this destructive dynamic, here are some starting points to improve levels of self-confidence and self-esteem and make your self-image work in your favor. Consider your options coldly Distance yourself from yourself and analyze the things you do as if you were an outside observer.

outside observer will help you recognize those situations and habits in which you are self-sabotaging. If you have been feeling low self-esteem for a long time, it is very likely that you have entered a vicious circle of anxiety and poor self-image that is difficult to get out of without trying. Therefore, taking a third-person point of view will help you see this vicious circle in its entirety and it will be easier to take action.How to do this? Very simple. When you notice that something is causing you distress and undermining your self-confidence, stop and think about the different options you can use to deal with this situation and choose the one that you think will benefit you in the medium or long term.

The key: overcoming the tendency to stay in your bubble. Be careful that your conception of what is "better" in the long term is not influenced by your desire to opt for the "comfortable" solution.

comfortable solution . If you want to do things differently from the way you usually do them, you will have to get out of your comfort zone. For example, if you feel that one of your academic papers has received a lower score than expected, the easiest option may be to do nothing, but if you go to the correction review to have the person who corrected it explain where you went wrong you are likely to learn things, even if confronting your mistakes may be a little uncomfortable.2. Do the same with your negative habits

This detached point of view should not only act as a way of considering your possibilities for action, but also as a method of detecting those thoughts that undermine you. method of detecting those thoughts that undermine your self-confidence levels. . Having a good self-image is not about having an objective self-image (that would be impossible, with the amount of things you know about yourself), but about having a self-image that is useful to you.

What makes the difference in building a positive self-image for yourself is the selective attention. When you don't think highly of yourself, all information about you and your actions comes to you having passed through a filter that makes you see everything in a pessimistic light. Thus, you will have a propensity to pay a lot of attention to things that go wrong for you, while your merits will go unnoticed. Since this bias will be there no matter what you do, take advantage of it! Detecting those thoughts about yourself that are unfair and recognizing them as such will help you downplay them.

Changing your thoughts to work in your favor

As you see the number of unrealistic negative thoughts about yourself, you will become more aware of your ability to actively participate in building appropriate levels of self-confidence, because you will realize that what you knew about yourself was biased by your state of mind. You will also be able to turn the situation around by countering with positive thoughts and paying more attention to the things that speak well of you.

. This will not only change your perception of your personality, but will also cause you to act differently and, as a final effect, improve your levels of self-confidence. 3. Stop comparing yourself to the same peopleYou must stop comparing yourself to other people. If you can't avoid comparing yourself, it's probably because you don't know them well enough. Nowadays, social networks and the media make it very easy for specific people to offer only their best side and keep many other things under lock and key. And all this, with or without a paid image consultant.

The importance of feeling at ease with oneself

Think, for example, of the time you have spent choosing the photos you are going to upload on your virtual profiles, or the meticulousness with which you choose certain phrases. That's what a lot of the people you hear about every day are constantly doing, and it's quite possible that many of them are still doing the same thing. it's quite possible that many of them care even more than you do about making sure that all this news is about a fascinating personality.

. So working on your self-confidence should include a phase where you move from idealizing these people to humanizing them, i.e., considering their flaws or lack of information about them.

If our own way of thinking already has built-in patterns of selective attention, the mass media and the Internet make this restricted access to a few pieces of information even more definitive. Which brings us to the next point. 4. Recognize the effects that propaganda has on your self-esteem. Self-confidence and self-esteem are intimately related, so you should look at both if you want to intervene.

you should pay attention to both if you want to intervene in your chances of changing your attitude and emotional style. . However, there are very powerful propaganda and advertising apparatuses that are almost exclusively in charge of offering niche markets to large organizations by creating insecurities in people. If you are a woman, for example, you will have noticed that there is a lot of media pressure to push women with the ideal of feminine beauty, something that ultimately does not exist.Something similar happens with virtually every element of our lives: architecture, cars, movie heroes' personalities, etc.

Detoxify yourself from the ideals of movies and television.

Realize that self-esteem, whether positive or negative, is something that can be learned and unlearned, and that it is influenced by influenced by media and cultural elements

serves to see that a negative self-image does not reflect our own nature. Therefore, it is essential to consider the social pressures that influence us in order to preserve our authenticity and not let advertising sink us emotionally. 5. Take care of your healthAlthough self-confidence is subjective, it is easier to make it positive if you introduce small objective changes in your life. Maintaining good habits of regular exercise, proper nutrition and hygiene is easy to achieve and, in addition to bringing you benefits of all kinds, can improve your self-esteem indirectly.

Mens sana in corpore sano When our body works better, everyone notices it (and also oneself). There are

multiple studies that relate physical and mental wellbeing.

so you should not underestimate this point.

6. Sleep well Not only because of what has already been said in the previous point, but because it is absolutely essential. Not sleeping adequately produces tiredness and stress, which affects our way of interpreting things and, of course, also has an effect on the postures

we adopt. It is difficult to trust yourself when you walk around all day with your head down. 7. Face realistic challenges and meet them.If you want to work on your self-confidence you should focus your actions thinking about the impact they will have on your self-esteem. Somehow, you have to leave messages for your future self so that it can read itself with kinder eyes (in part, that's what the first point above is all about).