How you see yourself has an enormous impact on the rest of the world sees you. Feeling confident and being happy in your own skin stems from an authentic connection with your true self, and is likely to help you succeed.
Authentic confidence is sexy. I’m not talking about smugness or arrogance. Those qualities stem from insecurity and for many, are off-putting. Real confidence, the kind that attracts your soul mate, lands you a perfect job and makes all your dreams come true, is authentic and inviting.
After leaving the corporate world a few years ago and successfully launching my own freelance writing and coaching business, I have had to relearn a lot of traits. How to be confident is not one they teach you in school.
Over the past few months, I have made it my full time job to look at my own insecurities and see how they are holding me back. What I found was a direct link between the amount of self-confidence I have and my happiness. Simply put, the more self-love I feel, the more confidant I am. The more I believe in myself the less I need validation or approval from others.
Here are 4 simple ways you can improve your own self-esteem:
- Remove what no longer serves you.
Believing in yourself starts with removing the beliefs, situations and thought patterns that no longer serve you. This means focusing on what you want and letting it pull you into your future.
- Focus on the positive.
Focus on the positive for me, means staying in the light and choosing positive thoughts. When insecurities creep in, I immediately look at where they stem from. I work on forgiveness and look at the positive lessons learned from each past situation. Being positive also means being compassionate to yourself and others as well as appreciating the journey as much as the destination.
- Take care of you.
The fastest route to feeling good about you is taking care of yourself. Listen to your body when it tells you to sleep, eat, exercise and relax. Treat your body like the temple it really is. Allow your inner voice to reflect in every action you take. You will find your cravings for unhealthy things will lesson the more connected and confident you become.
- Listen to your gut.
Often we struggle with a decision because we do not listen to our gut. Weather you are trying to decide if you should return the guy’s call, take the job, or pick toothpaste, your indecisiveness is usually the result of a lack of listening to your own inner voice. When you get clear about your own values, and true desires the confidence will elude naturally and effortlessly from your entire being.
I’d love t o hear in the comments how you personally overcome self-doubt.
and if you want to go deeper on the topic, join me this month for my online (livestream) workshop, Radical Self-Acceptance, anyone anywhere in the world can join.
And if you want to go even deeper still, grab my #1 best-selling book The Self-Love Expierment.
This is great and right on time for me! JUST yesterday, I was talking to myself out loud about how when I’m hungry, I eat. When I’m sleepy, I sleep. When I’m exhausted, I rest. When I’m angry, I need to take time to understand why, and let it go after it has served it’s purpose. The list goes on. It was really empowering to realize the simplicity and impact of being myself and understanding that what stresses me most (outside of finances), is putting others’ thoughts, words, beliefs, and feelings, above my own. I CHOOSE how and what to feel. That’s so powerful.
Thanks for the much needed reinforcement of this incredible reminder. Keep moving forward!