Let’s get one thing straight: there’s really no quick fix to improving self-confidence, so you can forget about things magically changing overnight. Though it certainly can be improved upon, no matter where you’re starting from. There are several techniques and methods you can try, many of which could be considered temporary solutions, like changing how you dress or faking confidence until it feels real. You can of course try out these methods too, but you will be wasting your time. If you’re looking for lasting self-confidence, and a solution that will improve confidence slowly but consistently, you must start with your mental attitude. In this article, we will discuss how a positive mental attitude can improve self-confidence.

What Is Self-Confidence?

Contrary to what you might believe, confidence is a skill, not a trait that we were either born with or without. In other words, it can be learnt – by anyone! We can define self-confidence as a belief in our own ability to be successful at something. You can have high self-confidence in some aspects of your life, and not in others. Typically, this is because of what we’ve spent more time practising or familiarising ourselves with.

Self-confidence doesn’t just apply to obvious activities and scenarios like sports; it can apply to moments within our everyday lives, like catching the bus alone after school. To prove that self-confidence simply comes down to how familiar we are with something, think about a habit that was built into your everyday routine as a young child – perhaps when you transitioned from one school to another. The children who participate in weekend sports activities like football would likely feel confident about trying out to be a part of the school’s sports team, whereas someone who has never experienced being involved with a sports activity may have low self-confidence in making the team.

Read: How to Build Lasting Self-Confidence

Self-Confidence and Practice

It’s obvious that improving self-confidence within a specific activity, like rugby or dance, for example, can be solved through practice – and lots of it. Though when it comes to improving how you feel towards things like your appearance, personality or social skills, for example, it’s easy to look for an alternative solution. You might be thinking, what can I practice in order to feel better about the way that I look and feel about myself? In these instances, when we refer to practising self-confidence – or self-image, as it can also be referred to as, we mean the practice of habits that positively support your confidence and worth.

How A Positive Mental Attitude Can Improve Self-Confidence

Adopting a positive attitude towards life is not only beneficial to self-confidence, but also has a rewarding impact on your mental wellbeing, professional life and relationships too. But how is a positive mental attitude effective at improving self-confidence? If you think back to a time when you didn’t feel confident about yourself or about something you were about to do, no evidence pointed towards these feelings you had; it was, in fact, a thought – a negative thought.

Of course, it’s important to be aware of all the emotions, thoughts and feelings we experience daily, though it’s equally important to pay attention to negative thoughts that feel overwhelming or unrealistic. These particular thoughts can often be untrue, but feel powerful and genuine, because our brains create them from things like past experiences, expectations and perceived threat.

When we train our brains to combat every negative thought with a positive one, the negative emotions slowly lose power and control over us. They suddenly feel insignificant and manageable, because we’ve altered our perception to have a more positive outlook. Then, with practice, every time you feel self-doubt, you can reframe the negative thought so that it doesn’t take over and occupy your brain. Here’s an example to inspire you to give it a go.

Scenario: A teacher asks the students to each come to the front of the class to introduce themselves to their new classmates.

Negative thought: ‘I can’t do this, I hate speaking in front of people, I will mess up my words and look like an Idiot. I wish I had more makeup on so that my face wouldn’t go so red.’

Reframed thought with a positive outlook: ‘Instead of reapplying my lipgloss (which no one will notice anyway) I should use this as an opportunity to get better at public speaking, as I will only continue to feel this way If I keep avoiding it. To help me feel calmer, I should take some deep breaths before it’s my time to stand up.

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Understanding what confidence is beyond an emotion that sometimes feels and sometimes doesn’t can help you work on improving it. It’s an important skill to have as it forms an integral part of our overall mental wellbeing. In this article, we will dive into the true definition of self-confidence, as well as the factors that influence it and how it can be improved.

What Is Self-Confidence?

Self-confidence, by definition, is trust and belief you have in your ability, judgement and power to succeed and overcome challenges. Self-confidence should not be confused with self-esteem, which is how you value your worth instead. This definition immediately contradicts theories that confidence is entirely inherited and can’t be changed or developed. It’s true that genetics play a role in how naturally self-confident we are, but not in how confident we can become. Typically, people who have high levels of self-confidence have the following personality traits:

• Belief and trust that they can accomplish goals they set themselves.
• Accept what their strengths and weaknesses are, instead of trying to be perfect.
• Have resilience through criticism, mistakes and failures.
• Consistently and clearly stick up for themselves and are assertive in what they say.

Read: Best 10 Reasons To Consider A Budgetary Administration Course

Factors That Affect Self-Confidence

Childhood & Previous Experiences

Arguably the most influential factor in determining self-confidence is our childhood experiences. There are many cases where positive experiences at a young age have hugely improved self-confidence in young children and led them to carry this confidence into their later life. Contrastingly, it’s common for children to go through stressful and traumatic experiences which negatively impact their self-confidence, and continue to impact it in many years to come.

At young ages, our brains take in every piece of information and stimuli and process it in order to learn and grow, which means experiencing challenging situations at this time can shape your self-confidence for later life. But it doesn’t take a life-changing event to occur for self-confidence as a child to be affected. In fact, it can be as simple as parenting styles that either build or diminish your confidence.

For example, in a household that adopts strict and controlling parenting styles, where children are consistently punished for their mistakes, children can easily develop low levels of self-confidence from getting used to the punishment and lacking any encouragement or praise. On the other hand, parents who choose to praise their children for even the smallest of tasks actually improve self-confidence levels in their children as they start to believe in their abilities.

Mindset and Perception

As well as our childhood experiences, a second factor that determines self-confidence levels is our own mindsets and personal perception. Everyone has an internal dialogue, which can sometimes talk positively about us, and negatively too. Without realising, negative self-talk can increase self-doubt and lead us to believe the thoughts that go through our mind – even when there’s no way of controlling them. Contrastingly, if you’re someone who talks positively about themselves, even when it feels unnatural to, you will slowly be building up your self-confidence, which will help you overcome challenges and situations when your confidence is tested.  

How to Rebuild Self-Confidence

Improving self-confidence requires patience, as it’s impossible to rebuild confidence without consistency and persistence. The key thing to remember is that confidence is built through action, not just positive thinking. Start by facing some of your smallest fears and taking action by doing the exact things you’d usually avoid. Doing what you’re scared of improves self-confidence as it proves to yourself that you are capable of getting through situations that are challenging and uncomfortable. If this is proven consistently and regularly, you will carry this attitude into the rest of your life and any other confronting situations you face.

Although it’s necessary to understand how we can develop self-confidence, it’s also important to recognise that there are always situations and events, completely out of our control, that can damage or remove your self-confidence at the most unexpected times. These factors are known as social and environmental influences that are unavoidable and are life-changing for your self-confidence. In the worst cases, for example in car accidents, individuals may suffer from both physical and mental injuries that prevent them from returning to work and normal life.

After so long out of everyday life, it’s normal for individuals to feel uncomfortable and lack confidence in returning, and it can take months if not years to get that self-confidence back to where it should be. As well as confidence redevelopment methods, several other professional services can also help, such as firms like Bond Turner who specialise in mental injury compensation in personal injury claims. Hopefully, being aware of all the factors that can influence self-confidence, you can feel more settled through the days that feel more challenging and know these will come and go.

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