What does the word confidence mean to you? 

Confidence can be defined in many ways, confidence within yourself, confidence in others, confidence publicly and at work.

All types of confidence can be a battle for many, and so I am taking this opportunity to give you some useful insight, as well as some tips and techniques to boost your level of confidence.

Confidence within yourself

I am a firm believer that you need some level of confidence within yourself, to maximise confidence in other areas. Confidence is an attitude; it is a value guided by a positive mindset. We know ourselves better than anyone else, its about having a sense of control, acceptance, and trust within yourself, knowing your strengths and weaknesses, skills and abilities and an overall positive view of yourself.

Self-confidence has been proven to be an important aspect of health and wellbeing, guiding you to feel motivated and do well in all areas of your life.

The benefits of self-confidence 

-        Increased motivation and high resilience

-        Growing and maintaining relationships

-        Confidence in decision making and expressing needs and opinions

-        A good self-care and self-love routine

-        Maintaining positive mental health

-        Happiness, joy and fulfilment 

Why can self-confidence be hard to find?

As I mentioned above, having confidence within yourself is an attitude, and the likihood is, if you have a lot going on in your life, finding this positive attitude can prove to be tricky. However, there are many causing factors that can damage this outlook:

-        Stress

-        Health conditions such as anxiety, chronic pain, illness and disability

-        Negative self-talk

-        Comparison to others

-        General life problems, such as relationship breakdowns or financial difficulty 

-        Loneliness and social withdrawal

-        Setting yourself unrealistic goals 

-        Fear of failure

Of course, lack of self-confidence is normal on some level, it’s something I think we have all experienced at some point in our lives. But remember: Confidence isn’t something you have to earn, its an entitlement, and no matter what the damaging factor, we are all entitled to feel confident with who we are.

Techniques to boost your self-confidence

Set realistic goals – These goals should be based on your strengths and weaknesses, skills and abilities. Start off by setting easy, achievable goals, once you start ticking these off, your confidence will grow.

Don’t compare yourself to others – This is becoming an increasingly popular situation and has a detrimental impact on one’s self-confidence. Progression in life isn’t a competition, you could keep a journal to remind yourself of this. Note down all the positives within your life, all of your achievements, skills and attributes.

Build positive relationships – spend time with your true supporters. Positive friends and family that recognise you and appreciate you will guide you in a huge boost of self-esteem.

Challenge yourself – Along with your small achievable goals, set one larger goal and think of it as a challenge. It could be as simple as joining the gym, but the main area of focus is putting yourself slightly outside of your comfort zone.

We live 1 life, and you should live it to the max. Its unbelievably easy to let things get in the way, we are all guilty of this, but ask yourself, what do you gain from this? 

PS – If you want some more guidance and to ponder on the big questions in life, why not check out the Philosopher-in-Residence series. Out every fortnight on a Thursday, and written by our Principal Planner, Anna Pascoe.  You can take a peek at the latest edition here:https://www.makemeaplan.com/news/on-doctoring/