Born in St Ives, Cornwall, Isis Monteverde takes an active interest in yoga, tai chi, mindfulness, meditation and nutrition and has worked as a life coach for the past 20 years. This article will provide tips and pointers to help boost self-confidence, helping people to feel at ease even in challenging situations.
For those who are naturally self-critical or allow others to put them down, exuding confidence is not always easy. Nevertheless, there are steps that can help everyone to increase and maintain self-confidence.
Self-confidence is a crucial quality, enabling the individual to trust their own judgement, abilities and capacity. Self-confidence is essentially about a person valuing themselves and feeling worthy while still accepting their own shortcomings and imperfections.
When people master skills and achieve their goals this helps to build their sense of self-efficacy. This type of confidence enables people to accept difficult challenges, maintaining focus even in the face of setbacks.
Self-esteem, on the other hand, allows people to cope with what is going on in their lives and recognise that they have a right to be happy. Although the terms self-esteem and self-efficacy are often used interchangeably with self-confidence, in reality, there are subtle differences between them.
Self-confident people value themselves and trust their own judgement. They are generally more positive, while still acknowledging their own mistakes and failures and learning from them.
Thankfully, a person can improve their self-confidence by employing a number of tactics. Key among them is planning and preparation, since people generally feel more equipped to deal with unfamiliar and potentially difficult situations by preparing in advance. Take, for example, a job interview. A candidate may consider getting their hair cut beforehand or investing in a new suit to help them feel good about themselves. They also need to consider how they will travel to the venue and deal with unknown situations as best they can, breaking down tasks into smaller subtasks that are easier to plan.
Learning and research can help people to feel more confident about their ability to handle different situations, tasks and roles. Knowing how and why things are done helps people know what to expect, adding to their awareness to help them feel more prepared and more confident as a result.
Confidence is interlinked with calmness. Those who feel confident about a task typically feel calm about executing it. Positive thought is also a very powerful confidence builder, as an individual who believes they can achieve something is likely to give their all to make it happen. Learning from weaknesses and mistakes while focusing on strengths and successes helps people to stay cheerful and maintain a positive outlook on life.