Increasing self-esteem and self-confidence does not automatically make us superheroes, but it represents the first step to better face everyday challenges and our most ambitious goals.
A low self-esteem it can represent a huge obstacle in the path towards our dreams and goals. When we stop believing in ourselves, in our potential and in our abilities, the outside world and those around us start making decisions that would be up to us alone.
The good news is that our level of self-esteem is not written in our genes. You can't choose what color your eyes or hair are, but you can always learn to respect yourself more, to recognize your limitations and to appreciate your strengths. That's right, you can learn how to build self-esteem.
In the past I have already told you about 5 lessons to increase self-confidence; this time I want to tell you about 5 practical actions that, in my case, have proved particularly effective for increase self-esteem:
Look after your appearance.
I've always preferred the essence to the appearance, but taking care of yourself, improving your physical appearance and the way we dress can have a major impact on our self-esteem. Sometimes, when we feel out of sorts and out of shape, a little sporting activity, a nice shower and our favorite item of clothing are good for boosting our self-confidence.
Rethink the mI hear where you think about yourself.
Taking care of our appearance not only makes us feel better, it helps us to create a new image of ourselves. Much of our level of self-esteem is related to the image we project of ourselves in our mind. This image is not always real and we often tend to give more weight to our defects rather than to our strengths and strengths. This image isn't set in stone - to find out how to have self-esteem, edit it as if you had one of those digital retouching programs available. It is not a question of lying to ourselves, but on the contrary of balancing our strengths and weaknesses for a greater self-esteem and self-worth.
Learn to define your goals.
Another important component of our self-esteem is linked to the goals we manage to achieve.
In some periods our life seems studded with continuous failures that make us lose self-esteem; the causes can be many: the damned bad luck (much less than we think), our lack of self-discipline (often, but not always), the procrastination continue unavoidable obstacles that we had not foreseen.
Yet, we often fail to hit our goals because of how we define them. Better goals can lead us to better results and consequently to greater self-esteem.
Write a personal journal.
Most of the time we remember our failures very well and we tend to forget our successes and our strengths; for this reason, a personal diary, in which to collect our thoughts and experiences (positive and negative) on a daily basis, can help us to have a more objective image of the results we have achieved in the past and to have a different perception of self-esteem and its own value.
Knowing yourself, what you have already gone through and how you came out of it, can be a fundamental boost to increase your self-confidence.
Speaks slowly.
I will never cease to be amazed at how our body and our gestures influence our mind and vice versa. A famous American saying goes "fake it till you make it" (pretend, until you can): this means that even before you have high self-esteem you should pretend to behave like someone very confident.
Some practical examples? Try to speak slowly: those who speak firmly and calmly demonstrate that they have full command of the subject and do not have to rush to express their opinion.
"When we believe in ourselves we can experience curiosity, happiness, surprise and all those emotions that make us deeply human."
E.E. Cummings.
In your experience, what actions have allowed you to increase your self-confidence? If you like, share them in the comments, well ... if you think you're up to it! ;-)
