In a world where more and more things are demanded of us,
Working on improving levels of self-confidence remains the big challenge . Having deficits in this aspect not only causes emotional pain, but also predisposes us to act like people who do not trust themselves. And that, in addition to being a source of problems, makes others treat us as if we needed help for anything.

Tips for working on your self-confidence

Against this destructive dynamic, here are some starting points for improving levels of self-confidence and self-esteem and making your self-image work in your favour.

1. Coldly consider your options

Distancing yourself from your own person and analyzing the things you do as if you were
external observer will help you recognize those situations and habits in which you are self-sabotage. If you have been feeling low in self-esteem for a long time, it is very likely that you have entered a vicious circle of anxiety and bad self-image from which it is difficult to escape without trying. That’s why taking a third-person viewpoint will help you see this vicious circle in its entirety and make it easier to take action.

How to do this? Very simple. When you notice that something is causing you distress and undermining your self-confidence, stop and think about the different options you can use to face this situation and choose the one you think will benefit you in the medium or long term.

The key: overcoming the tendency to stay in your bubble

Be careful that your conception of what is “best” in the long run is not influenced by your desire to opt for
convenient solution . If you want to do things differently than you usually do, you will have to step out of your comfort zone. For example, if you think that one of your academic papers has received a lower score than expected, the easiest option may be to do nothing, but if you go to the correction review to have the person who has corrected it explain to you where you have failed, you are likely to learn things, even though facing up to your mistakes may be a little uncomfortable.

2. Do the same with your negative habits

This detached view should not only act when considering your possibilities of action, but also as
method to detect those thoughts that undermine your levels of self-confidence . Having a good self-image is not about having an objective image of yourself (that would be impossible, with the amount of things you know about yourself), but about having a self-image that is useful to you.

What makes the difference in building a positive self-image is the
selective attention . When you don’t think very highly of yourself, all that information about you and your actions comes to you having passed through a filter that makes you see everything in a pessimistic light. In this way, you will have a tendency to pay a lot of attention to things that go wrong, while your merits will go unnoticed. Since this bias will be there no matter what you do, make the most of it! Detecting those thoughts about yourself that are unjust and recognizing them as such will help you to minimize them.

Changing your thoughts to play in your favor

As you see the amount of unrealistic negative thoughts about your own person, you will become more aware of your ability to actively participate in building appropriate levels of self-confidence, because you will realize that what you knew about yourself was biased by your state of mind. You will also be able to turn the situation around
by fighting back with positive thoughts and paying more attention to things that speak well of you . This will not only change your perception of your personality, but will also make you act differently and, as a final effect, improve your levels of self-confidence.

3. Stop comparing yourself to the same people

You need to stop comparing yourself to other people.If you can’t help comparing yourself, it’s because you probably don’t know them well enough. Today’s social networks and media make it very easy for individual people to offer only their best side and keep many other things under lock and key. And all this, with or without a paid image consultant.

The importance of feeling good about yourself

Think, for example, of the time you’ve spent choosing the photos to upload on your virtual profiles, or the meticulousness with which you choose certain phrases. That’s what a lot of people do all the time, and you hear about them every day, and
Many of them may even care more than you do about making sure that all this news is about a fascinating personality . Therefore, working on your self-confidence should include a phase in which you move from idealizing these people to humanizing them, that is, considering their shortcomings or lack of information about them.

If our own way of thinking already incorporates selective attention patterns, mass media and the Internet make this restricted access to a few data even more definitive. Which brings us to the next point.

4. Recognize the effects that advertising has on your self-esteem

Self-confidence and self-esteem are intimately related, and that’s why
you should pay attention to both if you want to intervene on your possibilities of changing your attitude and emotional style . However, there are very powerful propaganda and advertising apparatuses that are almost exclusively in charge of offering market niches to large organizations by way of creating insecurities in people. If you are a woman, for example, you will have noticed that there is a lot of media pressure to put pressure on women with the ideal of female beauty, something that ultimately does not exist. Something similar happens with practically all elements of our lives: architecture, cars, the personality of film heroes, etc.

Detoxify from the ideals of film and television

Realizing that self-esteem, whether positive or negative, is something that can be learned and unlearned and influenced
media and cultural elements serves to see that a negative self-image does not reflect our own nature. Therefore, considering the social pressures that influence us is essential in order to preserve authenticity and not to let publicity sink us emotionally.

5. Take care of your health

Although self-confidence is a subjective thing, it is easier to make it positive if you make small, objective changes in your life. Maintain some
Good habits of regular exercise, proper nutrition and hygiene are easy to achieve and, in addition to bringing you benefits of all kinds, can improve your self-esteem indirectly.

Mens sana in corpore sano

When our body functions better, everyone notices (and oneself too). There are multiple studies that relate physical well-being to mental well-being , so you should not underestimate this point.

6. Sleep well

Not only because of what has already been said in the previous point, but because it is absolutely essential.Not sleeping properly produces tiredness and stress, which affects our way of interpreting things and, of course, also has an effect on the postures we adopt. It is difficult to trust yourself when you walk around all day with your head down.

7. Take on realistic challenges and meet them

If you want to work on your self-confidence you should focus your actions on the impact they will have on your self-esteem. Somehow, you must leave messages to your future self so that it can read itself with kinder eyes (in part, that’s what the first point is about).

The art of setting ambitious but achievable goals

Therefore, you should see which goals or objectives, far from being useful, do nothing but damage your self-image by being unrealistic. If you want to make progress in this direction,
focus on the objectives you can tackle and throw yourself into them , without leaving it for the next day.