Few Ways To Have Confidence

Here are a few ways to become more confident, and project the image of confidence that will help you succeed.

• The first thing you must do is assess your present confidence levels. Critically analyze your image and performance against those confident figures you admire. Ask your closest friends or colleagues to critique your confidence and find out how your image is coming across to others. Once you learn this, you can set a goal to improve the areas your confidence lacks. Remember, believing in yourself is a choice. You choose to believe in yourself, and over time this attitude will develop with each additional success.
• The surest way to increase your confidence is to change the image you have of yourself. Confident people think highly of themselves. Not in an arrogant obnoxious, “I’m better than everyone” way, but in an assured affirmative positive way. Think positive and know that you are a confident person who can make things happen. Being positive and confident about yourself will increase the confidence you project to others.
• The past is the past. Do not dwell on perceived failures. You can not change the past, you can only learn from it. Recognize past tasks that did not succeed as you planned as learning opportunities and drive forward with new knowledge toward the successes of the future.
  Project a confident image by thinking and communicating positively. Just as you must think positively about yourself, to project confidence to others you must remain positive in your thinking and communications. You must think positively, because if your thoughts are negative, your speech and body language will reflect it. Thoughts are the beginning. It was once said,
  

“Be careful what you think, because speech follows thought, action follows speech, habit follow action, character follows habits, and destiny follows character.”

• Communicating positively is more than just the words you choose. Regardless of your words, people will read and believe your body language. Open postures, eye contact and smiles project confidence, where closed postures, folded arms and lack of eye contact give negative messages. Stand up straight and do not stoop or slouch. Your posture and bearing project a message regarding your self-confidence.
• Listen to the tone of your voice. The exact same words, said in different tones change the meaning. Listen to people you believe are confident and distinguish the tone of their voice that helps project that quality. Work toward ensuring your tone of voice projects the confident image you desire.
• Finally, act confident. Even if you are not confident in something, act as if you are. Acting confident creates a habit pattern, and the more you act it, the quicker you will become someone who exudes confidence like the best of them. Remember the old expression, “fake it until you make it.”

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