How to Be More Confident In Yourself
Looking for ways to feel more confident or boost your confidence? Even if you put together a strong facade, it’s difficult to keep your confidence up at all times as a professional woman. Every once in a while, we could all use a lesson on how to be more confident.
Confidence is complicated. You can be confident in one area of your life, but feel you fall flat in another. All of these different levels of confidence accumulate into your general self-perception; the more confident you are across the board in individual categories, the higher your esteem is as a whole.
Let’s take a look at the two key areas where you can have or lack confidence and brainstorm ways you can boost your self-perception.
How to Be More Confident in the Boardroom
Especially if you’re in a male-dominated field, it’s hard to keep your confidence up in the office. There’s so much pressure to look professional, but not too beautiful, speak up, but not be too bossy, make decisions, but don’t be overbearing.
There’s so much more scrutiny on the choices we make in the office than our male counterparts.
Once we recognize that, we can start to gain our confidence.
If we internalize that it is other people’s problem that they are intimidated by our success, we no longer think it’s something we’ve done wrong. Any stereotypes or stigmas you’re facing as a woman are the fault of the perpetrator, not you. Knowing that it’s not something you did wrong will take away the self-doubt.
Now that you accepted that what any woman would do in your position would bother people, you’re free to be yourself.
Don’t back down. To improve your confidence while speaking in the office:
- Make eye contact. Don’t look away when you’re speaking. Show you’re engaged, capable, and have nothing to hide.
- Practice public speaking. If you struggle when presenting in front of people, practice, practice, practice. Public speaking is such a crucial skill, and can make or break people’s perception of your credibility. You know what you’re doing, so make them believe it.
- Say positive affirmations. Even if you don’t believe them when you’re saying them, write down mantras and affirmations you can say throughout the day. Set timers and whisper them when they go off. Make it your phone background. Put sticky notes up in your office. The power of manifestation can guide your success; speak yourself into confidence and it will become true.
How to Be More Confident in Your Body
At some point or another, we’ve all struggled with our physical self-image or body image. It’s hard to feel good about your body when many companies use the tactic of pointing out “flaws” as a way to sell their solutions.
When you’re feeling down and out about the way you look in the mirror, you need to take a step back and admire just how amazing your body is. Before you try to love it aesthetically, thank it for its function. It gives you the ability to wake up each morning, take in the day, and experience life.
Some of us are lucky to have the gift of sight, or the ability to run in the grass. How amazing is it that our bodies let us experience this world we live in?
You need to take the pressure off of yourself for having to be beautiful; your body’s job isn’t to visually please others. It’s job is to help you live your life, and that’s beautiful in and of itself.
Once you recognize your body’s greatness for the job it performs every day, you can start to appreciate its beauty. Lots of people tell you to stop comparing yourself to others; that’s excellent advice. But one way you can flip the script is by using social media as a way to gain confidence in your body.
The way to do that? Look at beautiful people who look like you.
Women Who Look Like You
Before Instagram, we were shown one type of beautiful: whatever marketing and fashion companies decided was going to be the beauty ideal that season. Now, we have the chance to look at beautiful people who look just like us.
If you’re a bigger woman, look up the hashtag #plussizemodel. If you are a woman of color and you’re only seeing pretty white girls on your feed, look up hashtags models of your ethnicity would use.
Look up the hashtags of what you’ve always struggled with on your confidence levels. The body language of confident people rocking your body type will inspire you to flaunt yours in the same way.
Self-confidence isn’t just about how you perceive your physical body; it’s how you see yourself in a spiritual sense. Not all spirituality has a deity tied to it. Your body’s spiritual health is just how well you feel you fit into the universe. Someone with a healthy spiritual outlook knows what their purpose is or feels comfortable on their journey to exploring and discovering it.
If you feel like you aren’t sure of your divine purpose or mission for life, take a look at what gives you a spark. What makes you happy? What makes you feel accomplished? What makes you feel fulfilled?
If you feel like your job is only there to pay the bills, make sure you find your calling outside of work. If you can’t fulfill your vocation in a professional setting, make sure you are making time to fulfill your calling in your free time. If you don’t actively make time to do things that give you your spark, you’ll feel low on motivation and will lose confidence.
Loving Yourself Is the Best Confidence
Look into your motivation for why you want to learn how to be more confident.
At the end of the day, you shouldn’t try to be more confident just to be better at work or to convince other people of your success. You should try to create long term confidence because you deserve to be proud of who you are.
The most miraculous people in the world struggle with confidence issues. You’ve done such amazing things in your life, and if you continue to build your confidence, you’ll find yourself stepping out of your comfort zone and trying brand new things.
Author, Artist, Photographer.
Sarah Margaret is an artist who expresses her love for feminism, equality, and justice through a variety of mediums: photography, filmmaking, poetry, illustration, song, acting, and of course, writing.
She owns Still Poetry Photography, a company that showcases her passion for capturing poetic moments in time. Instead of poetry in motion, she captures visual poetry in fractions of a second, making cherished keepsakes of unforgettable moments.
She is the artist behind the Still Poetry Etsy shop, which houses her illustrations and bespoke, handmade items. She is the author of intricacies are just cracks in the wall, a narrative poetry anthology that follows a young woman discovering herself as she emerges from an abusive relationship.
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