5 Ways To Boost Your Confidence and Live Your Best Life

Confidence is essential to being a motivated and accomplished individual.  It’s also attractive to others and a good indicator of high self-esteem and self-worth.  Having confidence allows us the ability to take positive steps towards opportunities and people that may be out of our comfort zone.  It’s important that we have enough certainty in ourselves and abilities that we’ll be able to handle whatever life throws at us.  However, being confident can be way easier said than done and not very many people talk about it.  So, try these 5 Ways to Boost Your Confidence and Live Your Best Life!

1. Check Off Your List

Honoring your commitments and feeling accomplished are big confidence boosters.  Progress doesn’t happen overnight, but if we can chip away little by little each day, we begin to accomplish our goals.  This typically begins with our day-to-day routine.  If we can set out to achieve what we need to each day, and then actually do it, we will feel better about taking on larger projects over time.  This slowly allows us to set more ambitious goals.  We’re building confidence that we can do it because we have in the past.

I absolutely love creating and crossing off my to-do-list each day.  I highly encourage you to give it a try by setting small, attainable goals that break up larger goals into bite-sized pieces.  Before you know it, you’ll be highly motivated, rocking that to-do-list, and feeling great about your accomplishments.

2. Boost Your Confidence with Exercise

Exercise can help you feel more confident about your outward appearance, but did you know it also aids with focus, memory, and stress management?  If your blood is pumping, your brain is working!  Exercise generally helps with energy levels and deeper sleep, which keeps your brain sharper and your memory on high-alert for better recall.  If you feel that your brain is on it, you have more faith in your decision making and problem solving skills – both of which are linked to boosted confidence levels.  So, get those steps in!

3. Body Language

Have you ever seen someone walk into a room like they own the place?  If you love that vibe and want to cultivate it for yourself, chin up, shoulders back!  Attempting to carry yourself with confidence, even if you don’t feel 100% about it, will start to send the message you hope for.  Others will see you as self-assured, and in turn, you will start to feel more confident as well.  Being aware of your body language and making eye contact with others conveys that you are secure in yourself.  Speak slowly and clearly, graciously listen to others, and participate in conversation more confidently with your shoulders pulled back as you do it.

4. Boost Your Confidence by Saying No

Learning how to say no confidently is a skill you’ll probably need to practice.  But, a big part of boosting your confidence is controlling your time and schedule.  Sometimes, the things others want us to do don’t align with our vision for ourselves or our week, or we simply have something else going on.  However, it can be difficult to say no in a face to face conversation.  One of my best practices when I receive any sort of invitation is simply saying, “let me check my calendar and I’ll get back to you.”  This not only lets you pause on a decision so you can think about what you’d like to do, but it allows you to not upset someone on the spot, which can be uncomfortable for everyone.

Then, when the time comes to actually say no, you should thank the person for their invitation and positively decline.  For example, “Thank you so much for the invite.  I would love to come to your child’s sporting event and cheer them on, but it looks like I have family plans myself that day.”  It is not mean or bad to not participate in every event that comes your way.  The more and more you learn to positively say no, the more you will feel confident about doing so.

5. Surround Yourself With Positivity

Although being a positive person yourself is a good foundation to boost your confidence, you also need to check your inner circle.  One of the things I love most about my family is their positive perspectives and belief in my dreams.  And, I love to reciprocate that for them too!  It’s extremely important that we are surrounded by others who cheer us on, encourage us, and push us to pursue our goals in life.  If our friends or family are constantly putting us down, it’s hard to push through that barrier of negativity.  It can greatly affect our confidence and self-esteem if those closest to us are being critical of our every move.  We can start to internalize their feelings and become critical of ourselves.

There are some people we obviously can’t get away from forever, but we can try to limit our interactions with them.  We can also remind ourselves that their opinion doesn’t need to matter or hold weight in our lives if it negatively affects our thoughts about ourselves.  There is a difference between constructive criticism and negativity for the sake of being negative.  Practice saying no to these people when they request your time.

What are some things you do to boost your confidence?  I would love to hear about them in the comments or DM me on Instagram @ourfarmerhouse.

XOXO,