How to develop self-confidence and increase your self-esteem

Confidence is the certainty about your abilities and the expectation that those abilities will lead to a positive outcome. Self-esteem is a realistic respect or favorable impression of oneself, a sense of respect for oneself. If you’re like most people, your self-confidence could improve from time to time. Often when your self-confidence is low, your self-esteem can suffer as well. It is at those times when our self-confidence and self-esteem are low that we need some quick and easy strategies to lift our fallen spirits. Here are some easy tips and quick suggestions to build your self-confidence and boost your self-esteem:

1. In everyday life, confidence is projected in our body language, behavior, and environment. Have you ever seen Tiger Woods on the golf course or Michael Jordan with the basketball? You can see the confidence in his eyes. Your body language and attitudes send the same signals not only to the world around you, but to yourself as well. Winners are not left behind on the court or in their daily lives. In this way you are creating the same posture and sending the same signals with your body to your mind. The same goes for your outward appearance. As the saying goes “clothes make the man”. Don’t underestimate the power that dressing well and grooming yourself have over you. Think about how great you feel after a trip to the stylist. Dressing for success is critical to cultivating self-confidence and building self-esteem. How you dress and how you maintain yourself is an indication of how you feel about yourself.
2. Positive self-talk and keeping the inner voice in your head positive is one step. But it is not enough to say “it is going very well” or “I am very well”. Good athletes prepare a lot. They think about everything that can go wrong so they can change or adapt if necessary. Projecting success is part of the mantra: “Play the role to be the role.” If you can tap into and access what makes you good in one area, you can use those traits in another area that you’re less confident in. And just like the areas you are good at, practice makes perfect and preparing for success follows the same format.
3. Avoid negative people and events and surround yourself with people who support you, see you at your best, and give you positive feedback. Negative people drag you down. Avoid people who suck your life energy and lower your self-confidence with their negative views and perspectives. This may require you to restrict contact with some people you may consider friends, but are they really friends if they are putting you down or criticizing your efforts?
4. The one winning behavior that is the hallmark of building trust is a willingness to come back after a setback. When you experience a loss, take the time to ask and understand what happened and, if necessary, get the help you need to move on. Panic can reinforce the fear that coincided with the mishap, so don’t let panic aggravate small missteps and cloud your thinking. Knowing when to walk away and clear your head is very important to getting back on the horse.
5. Recognition and praise can go a long way. The acknowledgment itself doesn’t need to be a big deal, but it should be genuine. Look at what you and others do well and recognize it. If you want to reinforce a positive behavior, state exactly what makes you or someone else happy, and why. Recognition is like feedback: it’s the breakfast of champions. This is the cornerstone of what makes great organizations and bosses stand up to bad companies and low employee morale.

Success does not depend so much on luck but on perseverance and hard work as Henry Ford said. It is not giving up when your goal appears in doubt. It is often at these times that the desired results are closest. If you can believe in yourself and you know you can back that up, even when the odds are against you, that’s confidence. The sign of a winner is persistence and the ability to never give up.