Ahhhhhh!! It’s everywhere! It’s at your job, in your bank account, in your relationship, in your family relationships, and even between your own ears.
Stress.
Insecurity.
Negativity.
Self-doubt.
With these four enemies (amongst others!) running rampant in your world, it’s no wonder your confidence will wane every now and then. When you feel like crap, you make crap decisions, you exude crappy energy (which means no one wants to be around you), and end up sinking into your own self-imposed crap hole. You can’t attract the wonderful life you want with this crappy attitude! Take your life back and rekindle your swagger with these tips.
- Smile at yourself. Spend a good two minutes in the mirror just smiling at yourself. Don’t look at your flaws, don’t think about how you could stand to drop ten, twenty, no thirty pounds. Don’t compare yourself to your favorite celebrity or your personal trainer. Just look at you and smile. Smile as if you are staring at the love of your life. Don’t just read this ... go smile at yourself and come back.
- What you appreciate, appreciates. Marie Forelo came up with that snazzy line. Oh, how true it is! Whatever you focus on, increases in strength and value. So why not take that energy and appreciate all of the lessons learned, challenges faced and conquered, moments of “It’s my life and I’m doing it my way!” Moments when you went with your gut instead of the crowd, and moments when you proved yourself right. Appreciate your wonderful gifts and know that you are one in a million. You are worth appreciating.
- Work out. Don’t just run on the treadmill. I mean, go work out so hard you think to yourself “How the hell am I going to finish this?!?!” I’m talking P90X hard. Do it not only for the awesome benefits of working out, but do it because of that “I totally kick ass!” feeling you have afterward. It’s a huge rush of endorphins that make you want to do a happy dance ... after you rest for a couple of hours. But you will feel like you can conquer the world if you can tackle a tough workout and survive.
- Plan. If you’re stuck in some area of your life and can’t seem to move forward, then you need to schedule some quiet time with yourself and make a plan. As an educator, we are told to teach students with an end in mind. Meaning, know what project you want the students to do at the end of the term and teach the skills they need in order to do it properly. Same goes for you. Think about what you want the end result to look like. From there, walk backward and plan out steps you need to take in order to get there. Having a plan will make you feel more together, more “with it,” and more self-assured.
- Detox. I’m currently on a detox, which kinda sucks because I can’t go to the state fair of Texas and eat a huge corny dog with a side order of tornado fries. However, I know in the end, it’s all for the best. My body feels so amazing after a detox. However, if you can’t (or won’t) do a nutritional detox, then at least go on a negative detox. That means ridding yourself of people, thoughts, programs, books, or anything else that causes you to behave negatively. Get rid of it! Take that negative self-talk and flush it down the toilet. Finagle yourself out of negative people’s web by saying no to their requests or simply not entertaining them.
- Give of yourself. The quickest way to boost your confidence is to help others who are worse off than you. By spreading a little joy to others, you not only make someone else smile, but you also look at your life from a different perspective. There are many ways to give and shouldn’t be limited to just serving the homeless at a soup kitchen. You could mentor a young child, participate in a recycling effort, pick up trash around a natural habitat, help answer phones at a nonprofit organization, and so much more. Use your gifts to boost someone’s outlook and esteem and your own esteem and outlook will change.
