Unlock your Inner Confidence!

Unlock the power within and embrace self-confidence with these 7 sure-proof tips!

Discover how to tap into your inner self and take charge of your life to bolster self-assurance.

Whether you're looking to combat low-esteem, take risks and make decisions with certainty, or simply display an enhanced sense of self-appreciation, you'll find the guidance you need to boost your self-confidence!

Below are actionable steps to help build your self-esteem and boost your confidence so you can live the life of your dreams. Let's get started!

1.) Boost Your Confidence Through Personal Hygiene And Self-Care

It can be hard to take care of ourselves when we’re going through a rough patch. When our self-confidence gets low, our self-esteem takes a hit, or we get outright depressed, personal hygiene and self-care are often the first things to go.

This makes us feel even worse and starts a self-reinforcing feedback loop of negative feelings and lost confidence. Focusing on personal hygiene and self-care stops this loop, which is why it’s one of the first lines of treatment for depression.

But you don’t have to be depressed or even insecure to benefit from this technique. Researchers have shown that putting more effort into personal hygiene and self-care helps everyone, from the most depressed person to the most confident, to feel better about themselves.

In fact, this is one of the most effective techniques you can use to get a solid short-term confidence boost. Do it often enough, and you can permanently increase your baseline confidence level.

What does it mean to use this technique? Well, if you’re depressed, it means to do simple things like take a shower, brush your teeth, and eat something good for you. These are good pieces of advice for anyone, but if you’ve probably got most of those down if you’re not struggling with depression.

You can take these things up a notch. Get a nice haircut. Dye your hair or do your nails if you like that sort of thing. Go buy a new outfit that makes you look incredible. Get some accessories that go with it too. These things boost your confidence and self-esteem immediately.

Make sure to do everything on your personal hygiene list. Start flossing. Whiten your teeth if yours bother you. Buy the premium soap or perfume you’ve been wanting to try.

For self-care, do some things like eat those healthy meals. Cut back on the caffeine and the sugar. Take a walk. Stop putting off needed medical care. Go to the dentist.

Take some time to yourself and do something you like that relaxes you -whether that’s a bubble bath, a video game, or rappelling off a 500-foot cliff with nothing below you but air. (To each their own.)

These things might seem selfish, but they aren’t because personal hygiene and self-care are both essential to feeling good about yourself. Any of these will help boost your self-confidence, some more than others depending on your personality. Try them and see how much better you feel!

2.) Looking Back At How Far You’ve Come

A good way to boost your confidence is by looking back at your past successes. No matter how much you’ve done (or feel like you haven’t done) in your life, you’ve accomplished some things and come a good way up life’s path.

You may doubt this if you’re currently struggling with self-confidence. It’s hard to see the stars when you feel like you’re trapped in a cave. That’s understandable. But you can beat this feeling.

There are two ways to do this. Both involve a pen and paper. Sit down in a quiet place where you can be by yourself. The first method is the Journey method. Think about where you were when you started whatever Journey you’re currently taking. Maybe you’re trying to start a new career, reach a new goal, or something else.

Where did you start? Write that down. What have you done since then? Write done everything you’ve done to advance yourself on this path. Everything, from the smallest to the largest item.

What have you learned? About the goal and about yourself. Write it down. What worked and what didn’t? Write it all down. Then look back over the list and see how far you’ve come. You might not be where you want to be yet, but you’ve come a long way from the starting line!

The second method, for overall confidence, is the Success method. It’s the same thing, only you’re going to write down every one of your life’s accomplishments. Put everything you’ve ever succeeded at on the list. Include big and small items. Scored top of the class in 5th-grade reading? Put it down. Ran a marathon? It goes on the list.

If you have trouble with this method, ask someone you trust who cares about you for help. Other people might be able to come up with things you didn’t, particularly if you’re dealing with a horrible self-confidence crisis.

When you’ve finished with either of these lists, you’re going to have a tangible record of things you’ve accomplished in your life. It doesn’t matter how much you feel like you’ve failed at; this list will show you things you’ve succeeded at too.

Use these lists to remind yourself that you can and have accomplished things in the past. You can do so in the future. You can reach any goal you set. All you have to do is believe in yourself!

3.) Speaking Affirmations And Power Poses To Help Build Your Confidence

Affirmations and power poses are a quick way to boost your confidence temporarily before an important event such as a job interview or a big meeting. You can build your confidence permanently using affirmations as well if you practice them regularly.

Here’s how to use these techniques.

Speaking Affirmations

Find a quiet place with a mirror. Look yourself in the eye and repeat any (or all) of these affirmations several times. Speaking them aloud is preferable, but if you can’t find a place where you can be alone and don’t want people to hear, repeat them silently.

I can do this.

I am confident.

I am capable of great things.

I am growing and becoming a better version of myself.

I deserve everything I want from life.

I am competent, capable, and intelligent.

Power Poses

Power poses are ways of standing or sitting that increase your confidence and make you feel like you can take on the world. Here are a few for you to try.

The LBJ -Find a nearby item at waist height, such as a table or chair. Place your hands on it and lean slightly forward. This pose increases your confidence while giving you a sense of power and control over the room.

The Vanna White -Gesture with open arms towards something you are emphasizing. This draws attention and makes you feel in charge, increasing your confidence.

The Standing Power Pose -Stand up straight, hold your head upright, keep your feet planted firmly on the ground, slightly apart, and hold your arms open. This makes you feel and look confident without being intimidating and is good to use in a meeting where you’re a junior person.

The Sitting Power Pose -Sit in the chair with your lumbar curve straight and your head upright. Keep both your feet firmly planted on the ground. Keep the rest of your posture “open” instead of closed. Do not cross your arms. Look the speaker in the eyes. This is a great pose to use for job interviews.

These are just a few of the many speaking affirmations and power poses you can use to boost your confidence. Not all are applicable or appropriate in every situation (the LBJ isn’t a great one to use for job interviews, for example) and not all of them will work for you. Try them and see which ones you find work best for your personality and situation.

4.) Talk To Yourself - Become Your Own Cheerleader

Does talking to yourself sound like a weird idea? It’s really not. Talking to yourself is not only a common occurrence but is ubiquitous. Every human being talks to themselves all the time!

Surprised? It’s true. Most people just don’t notice it. You have a torrent of thoughts running through your head at all times, or at least while you’re awake. This cascade is called your self-talk. Almost all of it concerns yourself -who you are, what you are, what you want for lunch, the itch on the back of your right ankle.

It’s the former things that are important where self-confidence is concerned, of course. What you say to yourself matters. It can build your self-image up or tear it down. That’s why techniques such as affirmations work -they directly target what you say to yourself.

If you want to improve your self-confidence, you need to take charge of this stream of thoughts, at least as much as possible. Don’t depend on your unconscious to do it for you. Become your own cheerleader.

How do you do this? Start purposefully talking to yourself. It doesn’t need to be aloud; talking to yourself silently is often as effective. Tell yourself good things about yourself. You’re a good person. You’re competent and capable. You can do whatever you want. You’re a good parent/employee/spouse/etc.

Make these things as specific as possible. If you’re currently trying to master a new skill, talk about how well you can do it and how quickly you’re learning. If you’re studying for a test, tell yourself how good you’re going to do.

Emphasize the attributes you’re working to improve. Tell yourself you’re doing a good job, that you’re trying hard, that you’ll make it. When you fail, don’t berate yourself. Be understanding, kind, and gentle. Know that you tried your best, worked hard, and will get it next time.

If it helps, see yourself as the coach or the parent of someone you’re trying to help. Does putting someone down or being negative help them improve? Of course not. So why would it help you? It won’t, of course. It will just make things worse. Treat yourself as you would want someone else to treat you.

Do this all the time. You don’t have to wait until something difficult or stressful comes up. Talk to yourself daily. Become your own best friend and a cheerleader any football team would envy. Your self-confidence will soar.

5.) Set Yourself Up For Success

Nothing boosts your self-confidence quite like success. Succeeding at something gives you a massive confidence lift. The more confident you are before you do something, the more likely you are to succeed in the first place, and going on to succeed at it gives you more confidence, which can create a self-reinforcing feedback loop.

But what do you do if you’re having trouble with self-confidence in the first place? Well, the first thing you need to do is get some successes under your belt, and the best way to do that is to set yourself up to succeed.

You’re probably wondering how to do that. Start by looking at the things you’re already good at. What are your skills? What can you do well? What do you like doing that you’re good at and would like to do more often? Don’t just make this list in your head; write it down or type it out.

Don’t stop until you’ve got at least five things on the list. Preferably more. When you’re finished, look back over the list. These should all be things you like doing, are good at, and want to do more of, remember. Which ones would be good challenges right now?

Go through the list one by one. Circle things that strike you as especially promising. Mark off anything that wouldn’t be practical at the moment, is too expensive, etc.

Now you should have a shortlist of things you’re good at doing that would make good challenges you could succeed at. They could be hobbies like woodworking, a physical activity you like doing, something you use for work, or anything else that you like and are good at.

Pick one of these items and set yourself a challenge that you know you can succeed at. If your chosen skill is running, maybe you enter your first 5k. Pick a good challenge that isn’t something you’ve done before but that is simple, and you can do.

Don’t sign up for a full marathon if you’ve never raced before! And don’t expect to win the 5k, either -your goal should be to finish it, full stop.

Succeeding at this goal -no matter how simple it may seem -will boost your confidence. Then pick another challenge, then another one, and keep going. Leaning into your strengths in this way is the best way to succeed, and success will build your self-confidence.

6.) Stop Negative Thoughts In Their Tracks

You’ve certainly heard about your self-talk by now. That’s the non-stop flow of thoughts that goes through your mind. The vast majority of it is about yourself. It can be good or bad, and it can either build up or tear down your self-confidence and self-esteem.

Naturally, positive self-talk -that is, positive thoughts about yourself -raise your self-confidence and negative self-talk lowers it. Negative self-talk can completely destroy your self-confidence.

If you’re trying to build your self-confidence, you’re going to need to get control of your self-talk and stop the negative thoughts that are harming you. Then you need to replace them with positive thoughts.

Here’s how to do it.

1.) Begin noticing your self-talk

Everyone talks to themselves constantly. The majority of people don’t realize they’re doing it unless an unusual thought sticks out or they start paying attention. The first step to controlling your self-talk is to begin to notice it. Pay attention.

The importance of this step can’t be overstated. You need to notice and understand your self-talk before you can change it. The most important thing you need to notice are the negative thoughts. If you’ve been having self-confidence issues, these might be the majority of your thoughts. Here are some examples of negative thoughts:

“What were you thinking, you idiot?” “You can’t do that!” “What’s the use?” “I’ll never succeed at anything.”

Any time you put yourself down or denigrate yourself counts. This includes the use of self-deprecating humor.

2.) Start challenging the negative thoughts

The next step is to begin challenging the negative thoughts when you notice them. When you catch your self-talk being negative, stop the thought and tell yourself “That’s not true.” It doesn’t matter what the thought was or what name you were calling yourself; it’s not true.

3.) Replace the negative thought with a positive one.

After you’ve gotten good at challenging negative thoughts, start amending them to positive ones. “I can’t do that” becomes “I can do that if I try hard enough” and so forth. Do this every time you catch yourself having a negative thought about yourself. It may be difficult, especially in the beginning, but stick with it.

If you do this consistently, the number of negative thoughts in your self-talk will gradually diminish. This takes time, but you will eventually replace them with the positive thoughts you’re using instead. You’ll slowly reprogram yourself into thinking positively about yourself, which will boost your confidence.

7.) Exercise - The Endorphins Will Give You An Instant Boost In Confidence

Do you want a technique that will give you an instant confidence boost? One that will immediately raise your confidence and keep it higher for the rest of the day? One that, if repeated often enough, will raise your baseline confidence permanently?

I’ve got just the technique for you. It’s called exercise.

I know what you’re thinking -what in the world does working out have to do with my self-confidence? I want to feel better about myself, not get in shape. Well, you don’t have to work out enough to get into better shape for exercise to raise your confidence. You don’t even have to do aerobics.

How does this work? Well, when you exercise, both your body and brain are stimulated in many different ways. They dump out a lot of the toxic chemicals from stress and anxiety. This alone makes you feel better. But this isn’t what boosts your confidence.

Exercising makes your brain release a class of chemicals called endorphins. These chemicals are also referred to as feel-good hormones because that’s what they do. They boost your mood, your self-confidence, your self-esteem -pretty much everything that has anything to do with the interaction of your brain chemistry.

A whole lot of these endorphins get dumped into your bloodstream whenever you work out. They make you feel better instantly. The effects are long-lasting too. Researchers have detected noticeable increases in endorphins many hours, and sometimes a full day, later.

If you exercise enough, the baseline level of these hormones in your blood will also increase, leading to a nearly permanent boost in your mood and self-confidence. How’s that for a simple technique to raise your confidence?

But it gets even better. You don’t have to spend hours at the gym to get these effects. You don’t even have to do an aerobic workout or hop on any of the machines. While it’s true that more intense types of exercise release more endorphins, any form of exercise will cause at least some increase in your endorphin levels.

This means that even taking a walk will boost your self-confidence! All you have to do is walk for 10 or 15 minutes and you’ll notice an improvement in your mood and self-confidence. If you do this daily, you’ll get a permanent improvement just as you would if you went to an aerobics class every day.

Try this technique today. What have you got to lose? Need more help? Grab this free handy Dandy list of 31 Strategies To Unlock Your Inner Confidence!!