Three Steps That Can Make You More Self-Confident

High self-confidence is a great asset. People who have high self-confidence have been shown to perform better in almost all areas of life than their less confident counterparts. They are, for example, able to cut better business deals and market themselves and their products better. Employers too, seem to prefer employees who exhibit higher levels of self-confidence and thus, people with higher self-confidence have access to more employment opportunities.

And as we all know, people with high self-confidence have richer social lives, as they are more inclined to take social initiative. Even in academics, students with higher levels of self-confidence outperform their more timid counterparts. In fact, many people who come to find self confidence later in life often aver that had they more confidence in their formative schooling years, they would have performed better in their studies and consequently in life.

Self-confidence is a product of both nature and nurture. That is to say, having high self-confidence depends on both biological and social/environmental factors. And while there is not much you can do about the biological factors, short of taking anxiety-beating drugs, there is plenty that you can do on the social/environmental factors, which is our focus.

Think well about yourself.

How you feel, depends on a large part on what you are thinking. The mind, very much like a computer, works on the GIGO principles. GIGO stands for Garbage In, Garbage Out. Thus if you think well about yourself, you end up feeling good about yourself and exhibit high self confidence. Conversely, if you think negatively about yourself, you inevitably feel bad about yourself and act similarly. One aid you can use towards developing a better thought pattern about yourself is outlining your strengths and other good things you know about yourself. You can then focus on one or a set of these in your moment-to-moment thinking. This will almost certainly boost your self-confidence.

Think well about others.

As it were, your self-confidence also depends on the feedback you get from others, which is a part of the social factors underlying self-confidence that we mentioned earlier. Now anyone who is keen on how stuff works will have noticed that what we give is inevitably what we receive back. Thus, if you think well about others, they also tend to have a better opinion of you. In actual fact, it doesn't work magically. The logic behind it all is, for example, that when you think you think well about others, you tend to act and speak to them in a way that is inviting, and they are more likely to respond in a similar manner. The consequent feeling of being liked is sure to give your self-confidence a great boost.

Act confidently.

This is about the well-proven adage in psychology - and in life at large - of faking it till you make it. And it always works, at least in developing self-confidence. You can boost your self-confidence by, for example, walking confidently, wearing stylish outfits and talking confidently. If for example, you wear stylish outfits, your will find yourself having to act confidently to 'fit' into the outfits.

Thus by thinking well about yourself and others, and acting confidently, you are more likely to give your self confidence a great boost, with all the attendant benefits it comes with.