How to Restore Self-Confidence
Trials in life, failures, and obstacles can all contribute to beating down a person’s self-confidence. Belief in oneself isn’t inherited; it’s learned. You can mentally teach and condition yourself to have confidence. Invest your time and energy into improving your self-concept and you’ll have better success in relationships, your job and life in general.
Start by taking care of your physical health and making sure there are no underlying sicknesses that might drain all of your energy. Once physically vital and healthy, you can begin working on the mental condition.
5 Steps to Restore Self-Confidence
1. Guard yourself from negative thoughts and pessimistic people.
Take a personal inventory of your good qualities and successes, says M. Farouk Radwan, creator of 2 Know Myself. When confidence begins to flee, take out that list and remind yourself of your specialness.
2. Forgive yourself for your mistakes and learn from what went wrong.
When situations aren’t going right, slow down, re-evaluate what’s happening and find ways to change course. If failure still occurs, be willing to try again. If a person does not forgive himself, he can become tormented by thoughts of his errors and lose the opportunity to live fully, says psychotherapist Mel Schwartz in Psychology Today.
3. Set reachable goals.
Make them task-oriented instead of based on achievement, since task-oriented goals are measurable and more reachable. Write down ideas on paper and develop what Essential Life Skills calls an “Action Plan.”
Place goals in areas where you will see them often. Check off each time you accomplish one of the activities on your list. Break down particularly hard jobs into manageable tasks. Once completed, reward yourself with something fun and pleasurable.
4. Establish quiet times in order to eliminate discouraging thoughts and beliefs.
Confidence, states Alex Lickerman. M.D., in Psychology Today, results from belief in your competence, that you are able to solve problems, and in your own value. In the quiet time you may realize that you have what it takes to face life’s challenges and can find ways to take care of problems that come along.
5. Depend on yourself, not others, for self-worth.
Recognize that you are unique and possess qualities that nobody else has. Be okay with who you are and with what you are able to accomplish.
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