How To Be More Confident: 7 Strategies To Build Confidence

Confidence is like a language. It’s verbal but it’s also equally non-verbal – depending heavily on the way someone talks as well as stands, sits, walks or even thinks.

Confidence offers many great benefits. Being more confident means you are more likely to make friends, be well-liked, get a good job, advance in your career or even find love more easily. It’s no secret that being confident can be useful for you.

If you struggle with confidence or if you just don’t have enough of it you may want to improve in this area. There’s nothing wrong with being shy or reserved once in a while. Even many confident people sometimes seem guarded depending on their mood and the situation they are in. Still, though, being able to display confidence in the right circumstances can also prove useful.

If you are looking for a confidence boost, let’s start on a good foundation. You can find confidence in knowing that building confidence is possible. It is a skill, and just like many other skills, it can be developed.

Ways to become more confident

Here are some ways to help build confidence.

1. Act confident

A good way to start building confidence is to act the part. This can help you work your way onto the next step which is making genuine changes. First, identify what confidence looks like to you. What are the personality traits of a confident person in your opinion? How do you think this person behaves?

Once you answer these questions, start acting accordingly. Start carrying yourself with confident body language. Lift your head up, relax your shoulders and arms and puff your chest out slightly. Sit more confidently, walk more confidently, even think more confidently. When you talk, speak as though you were the ideal confident version of yourself.

Simply acting confident might make people view you as more confident. The other benefit is, by acting, you could start convincing yourself that you are truly a more confident person. This could then spill over into real life where you become more confident simply by way of feeling more confident.

2. Accept imperfection

It is important to know that being confident doesn’t have to mean being perfect. Many confident people experience difficulties, have flaws, make mistakes and deal with imperfections. Being confident doesn’t necessarily mean eliminating these things from your life, it simply means being able to work through them.

One of the best ways to deal with things not lining up with your ideal(s) is simply acceptance. Try radical acceptance. You don’t have to like flaws or bring them up in conversation. Acceptance means what the word implies; accepting. Don’t allow negative or positive sentiments in your mind towards flaws that may be in your life, just be okay with them. Choose to be aware of but unaffected by them. Let them simply become data.

It’s important to note that this goes for just about anything. It can be something about your appearance, the life you were born to, the things you may have dealt with or the things you are dealing with. Accept whatever it is and live fruitfully despite it.

3. List your positive traits

Take out a pen and paper and list everything you have going for you. You can even list the things you have the potential to do. Maybe you have a personality that draws people to you, write that down. Maybe you’re a genius but you find yourself lazy or driven by emotion. Note intelligence as one of your positive traits even if it’s just potential. This way you know what you need to work on to be the best version of yourself (this can help confidence).

No matter how big or small the trait is, if you can be proud of it write it down. Just recalling these and seeing them on paper could boost your confidence. If ever you feel down, pull out that piece of paper and read them to yourself with excitement.

4. Think with confidence

Your thoughts are a major part of the person you are. It’s a great idea to take on a more confident mentality if you strive to become a more confident person. Think more positively and think of yourself more highly. In every situation you find yourself in (no matter how difficult), ask yourself how the confident version of you would be thinking and start thinking just like that.

If you are feeling a little uneasy about something specific or maybe life in general, convince yourself you have the ability to succeed. Keep yourself aware of your capabilities. You don’t have to be delusional or excessively positive, just keep your hopes up as best as you can.

5. Be resilient

The journey to becoming more confident doesn’t necessarily have to be a smooth and easy one. It can be, but that’s unlikely. Chances are higher that you’ll encounter at least some form (if not many forms) of difficulty. Challenges can arise but it’s important that you have the mental tools to address and overcome them. Overcoming may not always be possible, so being able to push through and cope regardless can also be useful.

If you fall, get back up. If you go through an unconfident day, try to make the next day better. If that doesn’t work, try the day after that. If you deal with an obstacle try your best to overcome it. If you can’t do that, consider how you can move on. Make a point of not letting anything hold you back from your goal of self-confidence.

6. Speak with confidence

The way you communicate verbally is a major conveyor of whether or not you are confident. To be more confident overall, work on speaking more confidently. People who are more reassured of themselves tend to speak a little loud. This doesn’t mean screaming (that’s probably best avoided). Simply having a clear voice can exude confidence.

Speak passionately but calmly. Avoid seeming too emotional but make sure you do have emotion in your voice. A good rule of thumb to follow is this; people should be able to understand how you feel without getting the impression that you are feeling it in excess.

Another important part of speaking confidently is choosing your words properly. Make sure you are assertive in the way you speak. Get your message across using few words and avoid using overly complicated language in day-to-day speak. Try searching some definitions of words and read through synonyms to improve your vocabulary.

Read: How To Be A Great Conversationalist

7. Build confidence gradually

One mistake some people make when they are making an effort to be more confident is they tend to set ambitious expectations. That’s okay – perhaps it’s even an indication of confidence in itself. However, it is important to remember that this might be a big change depending on the starting point.

If you’re shy, try to do something small that boosts your confidence. If you struggle to order your own food, for example, make an effort to do that first. Start taking on larger challenges gradually after that. You don’t have to give a nationally televised speech on your first day of trying to be more confident.

Remember to celebrate small accomplishments because at least they indicate some amount of improvement. Even if you think it’s small, it is worth feeling rewarded by doing it because it’s better than nothing. There is nothing wrong with building confidence slowly as long as you are building it.