Tips for Boosting Your Self-Esteem & Confidence

Having good a sense of self-esteem and confidence is important to leading a happy and productive life. Sometimes it’s difficult to maintain your self-esteem and be positive about how things are unfolding in your life. Here are some tips that may help you through times when you’re feeling less than your best.

Think About Something You’re Good At

Everyone is good at something. There’s probably something that you’re really good at. No matter how trivial it is, whenever you’re feeling less than confident, think about the thing you’re good at. You could be good at shooting pool, doing crossword puzzles, ice skating, managing a business – it doesn’t matter how important or unimportant it is in the grand scheme of things. Focus on that, and the confident feelings that you have while you’re doing it.

Treat Negative Comments as Jokes

If you approach every negative comment that someone says about you as a joke, it will take the power and sting out of the comment. Jokes are just that – jokes. They aren’t the truth. Let the negative comment roll off of you by dismissing it as a silly joke. Learn to laugh and shrug it off.

But Don’t Let People Put You Down

Of course, there’s a limit to how much you can dismiss and shrug off. If someone is really being rude or disrespectful, don’t stand for it. Be firm. Tell them to stop and that you do not appreciate their negative comments. If they continue to mistreat you, walk away from that person or drop them completely from your life.

Learn to Relax

Sometimes, anxiety and nervousness can spiral out of control, and contribute to your lack of confidence and self-esteem. By learning to relax and calm yourself, you can keep those anxious feelings in check and not let them throw you off. Meditation can help you with this.

Remember Your Accomplishments

You’ve accomplished many positive things in your life. Rather than dwell on failures, why not dwell on your successes? Graduating from college, getting a job you wanted, finishing a marathon, completing a difficult project – think about the things that were tough but you got through and accomplished.

Enjoy The Compliments That People Give You

You may find that it’s hard to accept compliments from people. You may think they’re undeserved, or that they’re insincere – that the person is just saying the compliment for the sake of saying it. But don’t judge or analyze it, just accept the compliment and enjoy it.

Be Irrationally Positive

It’s been said that being irrationally confident is better than being rationally defeatist. Many times, we are negative and worry about things for no reason at all – why not turn that around, and be positive and confident about things for no reason at all? It may seem silly, but isn’t it also silly to beat ourselves down for no reason? Sometimes it pays just to be over the top in your confidence.