10 Strategies to Building Self Confidence

Building confidence in self starts with understanding ‘who am I’ and developing strategies to harness the attributes that exist within. Some of the strategies that can help in developing self confidence are:

1. Know yourself – Developing awareness of our attributes, unique preferences and skills is critical to building confidence. We are all born perfect. Comparison and competition take us away from looking within. Understanding and focusing on our strengths, habits, perceptions, intelligence, etc helps to know where and how we can add value. For instance, are you good at numbers, art, writing, music or engaging with people, environment, animals…what are you passionate about…work becomes a joy when we are passionate about it.  
2. Acknowledge yourself – We spend our day doing so many things well, such as sending kids to school on time, getting to work and making someone feel better, being productive, learning new skills, studying…Celebrate achievements, little victories that make a life worth living. It’s very easy to fall into a trap of judgements and feeling of imperfection. Constantly making effort to move forward is a celebration of the existence of life.
3. Voice yourself – We all have insights, experiences, stories…a life worth sharing to inspire another. Share your perspectives, stories and lessons. Don’t keep wondering will it serve any purpose, am I right or not. Just try. My life is constantly enriched by others experiences and perspectives.  
4. Be kind and let go – We are students for life because every situation and conversation is new. Do your best and let go of the errors of judgment. We don’t intentionally like to add pain to our life, things happen, sometimes despite best efforts. Learn and let go of that pain. 
5. Be courageous – Life happens in action. The way we learn how to walk by letting go of another’s finger, similarly, we learn and grow by learning new skills, exploring new avenues, experimenting with new expressions, 
6. Be curious and learn – Life is a constant journey of learning. Each individual is gifted with different intelligence, skill, attributes and hence, each one offers a different perspective to life. Stay open and curious to observe, absorb and learn. We can also learn a lot from observing Nature.  
7. Be consistent – Any success rests on the shoulders of consistent hard work. Making a list of goals, breaking it down into smaller steps and then tracking progress helps to achieve bigger milestones. Preparation and practice make the task easier and ensure excellence. 
8. Be vulnerable, Take support - As human beings who learn every day, it is not possible for us to always know it all or do it all. We all need support to learn, achieve and grow. Also, relationships add joy to our life. Reach out whenever you feel stuck emotionally, physically, mentally or spiritually. There is an ocean of goodness in the world. 
9. Be patient – There is often a time lag between efforts and outcomes. Have patience, and don’t be quick to judge yourself or others. Some tasks bear fruits quickly and keep us going, while some take longer and require more effort. The higher the goal, the higher is the effort, consistency, courage and patience required. 
10. Love yourself – Comparison and competition reduce our ability to understand and harness sour true potential. We are all born different such that we can contribute to each other and enrich our lives. Love yourself for who you are and allow that uniqueness to shine.