by Darpan Sachdeva
“Believe in yourself! Have faith in your abilities! Without a humble but reasonable confidence in your own powers you cannot be successful or happy.”
~Norman Vincent Peale
Self confidence is by-product of how I live and prepare myself every day.
This is one quality for human beings that can surely be enhanced and developed and made stronger with right efforts and mental hacks.
Let me be clear if you want to significantly boost your confidence, the key lies in working hard. On yourself, on your projects and on your relationships. True confidence is earned, not hacked.
But in the short-term, there are some strategies you can use to “flip” your confidence switch.
Down below are few proven strategies and hacks that would build up your self confidence and help you lead a more fearless and enlightened life.
1. Push through self-limiting beliefs.
As children we think we can conquer the world, but somewhere between childhood and adulthood, our enthusiasm and natural inclinations to dream big are squashed. Parents and teachers start imposing their own beliefs—about what we can and can’t do in life—upon us.
It is when you think and pass through over these self limiting beliefs is when you are on the path of attaining the true self confidence.
So go ahead, Find your limits by exposing yourself to different situations and pushing through the uncomfortable. Once you have confidence in yourself, you’ll be amazed what you can accomplish. Build up Self Confidence
2.Visualize Your Best Self
Just like athletes visualize their performance before a race/game, visualizing your best self first thing in the morning is incredibly powerful. It “warms up” your mind for the day, and reprograms your subconscious mind by reinforcing the right neural pathways.
Every single morning, after my morning meditation, I spend 5 minutes visualizing and feeling the different qualities I want to embody during the day (i.e., confidence, courage, care for others, discipline, gratitude). When I open my eyes, I feel totally empowered and ready to rock. Give it a shot tomorrow and see how you feel.
3. Talk to yourself.
This might seem crazy, but it works. Talking to yourself can make you smarter, improve your memory, help you focus and even increase athletic performance. The documentary The Human Brain claims we say between 300 to 1,000 words to ourselves per minute. The Navy SEALS and Special Forces use the power of positive self-talk as a way of getting through tough times.
Be positive, because the way you talk to yourself influences your neurobiological response to it. When you say, I know what to do here or see things as a challenge rather than a problem, you’ve turned your response into a positive one. Build up Self Confidence.
4. Think positive to overcome your negativity bias.
Since the early days, humans learned to get lunch or be lunch. Our natural negativity bias has kept us safe from danger for thousands of years. But not every new or different thing is a threat to our survival. This negativity bias can chisel away at our confidence because we’re hardwired to pay attention to all that we’ve done wrong.
Always come up with positive thoughts as you live through the day. Do not allow a negative thought to stay in your mind for more than 30 seconds. Try this and in the beginning you shall find it difficult but with time this would become your habit.
Do not suppress the negative emotion but at the same time do not dig deep in to it as with this you make the negative emotion stronger for you to deal with.
Label the emotions for what they truly are and move on. Do not enter into inner dialogue about the negative emotion because then it becomes more powerful. Build up Self Confidence.
5. Raise your curiosity levels.
Curiosity is an important trait for anyone who wants to be confident and successful.
Curiosity is the foundation of life-long growth. If we remain curious, we remain teachable and our minds and hearts grow larger every day. We can retain our beginner’s mind by always looking forward and discovering new experiences and uncovering new information.
As the old saying goes, what is not curious is not growing. So ask your self constant questions on different phenomenon and happening around you. It encourages you to be more open and confident .It opens for you whole new horizon.
6. Overcome self-doubt.
If you lack self-confidence, you will always feel like you’re at the mercy of other people. When you assume a victim mentality, you are no longer resilient to life’s inevitable obstacles.
Self doubt creates in you a mindset of mercy and dependence on others and external factors. So its very important to identify those areas of your life where you feel or have self doubt and try to remove it as fast you can.
7. Face your fears.
When we feel in control, we’re not afraid. When we have a level of comfort with something, it’s not scary. When we don’t feel in control, we don’t think clearly because our emotional brain is in the driver’s seat and takes over.
This is why fear often seems random and irrational—our emotions are in control.
Fear is a negative emotion and its one of the most serious of the negative emotions that the human mind can have. To gain confidence and control of your destiny its a must to over come any type of fears you have in your life.
Harvard Medical School professor Ronald Siegel recommends this in his book, The Mindfulness Solution:
Think about your worst fear. Spend time with it. Now make your fear worse by getting closer to it. Imagine the worst that could happen. Now focus on your breathing. Feel your body relax. See, you didn’t die, did you? You’re on your way to conquering your fear.
Darpan Sachdeva is the CEO and Founder of Nobelthoughts.com. With a long time passion for Entrepreneurship, Self development & Success, Darpan started his website with the intention of educating and inspiring like-minded people all over the world to always strive for success no matter what their circumstances. To keep going and never get disheartened and learn from every adversity.
