This document discusses what self-confidence is and provides tips to build it. Self-confidence is being at ease with yourself and inspiring trust in others. It can be improved by having positive thoughts, increasing self-esteem and happiness, and reducing stress and anxiety. Specific tips include getting to know your strengths and weaknesses, being prepared, focusing on your appearance, and staying positive even when facing setbacks. Building self-confidence requires work but results in benefits like greater success and happiness.

1. What is the Meaning of Self-Confidence
and Self-Belief?
Everyone admires a self-confident person. We may even envy them a
little! Self-confident people seem at ease with themselves and their
work. They invite trust and inspire confidence in others. These are
attractive characteristics.
It's not always easy to be confident in yourself, particularly if you're
naturally self-critical, or if other people put you down. But there are
steps that you can take to increase and maintain your self-confidence.
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Positive Thought
Positive thought can be a very powerful way of improving confidence.
If you believe that you can achieve something then you are likely to
work hard to make sure you do if, however, you don't believe that you
can accomplish a task then you are more likely to approach it
half-heartedly and therefore be more likely to fail. The trick is

2. convincing yourself that you can do something - with the right help,
support, preparedness and knowledge.
There is a lot of information about positive thinking both online and in
print. The basic rules of positive thinking are to highlight your strengths
and successes and learn from your weaknesses and mistakes. This is a
lot easier than it sounds, and we often dwell on things that we are not
happy with from our past - making them into bigger issues than they
need to be. These negative thoughts can be very damaging to
confidence and your ability to achieve goals.
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Your happiness and self-esteem will increase
Self-esteem is closely related to confidence but has a slightly different
definition — it is a person’s evaluation of their self-worth and value.
There is a direct correlation between confidence and self-esteem.
When you believe in yourself — your talents, capabilities, worth, and
potential — both your self-esteem and confidence increase.
When your self-esteem increases, you believe you are worthy of the life
you dream of and the success you desire. Not only will you become

3. more confident, but you will more easily accept your failures, give
yourself the credit you deserve, accept new challenges, and become
happier.
In fact, self-esteem always exists with happiness — and there are
studies to prove it. In almost every instance, people who feel good
about themselves are significantly happier than those who lack
self-worth. When self-confidence increases, your self-esteem and
happiness do the same.
Think about it in terms of the following chart. Most people would feel
high self-esteem, sure about their abilities, and good about standing up
for their beliefs when behaving confidently — as listed in the left
column. They are doing what makes them happy. The opposite is true
about the right column.
Your stress and anxiety will decrease
Did your math teacher ever randomly call on the students who weren’t
the strongest mathematicians to complete a problem in front of the
entire class? Mine did.
Could you sense the stress and anxiety fuming from those students (yes
… I was one of them) as they reluctantly walked to the front of the
classroom?

4. My palms were sweaty and my right hand would shake while writing on
the chalkboard — the pressure was on!
When a person in a situation like this doubts their abilities, they are
down at the bottom of that confidence cycle I mentioned earlier. Due
to increased stress and anxiety, they start to believe they don’t have
the knowledge or experience to complete a task (or in this situation,
complete a math problem correctly), even if that isn’t truly the case.
The feeling of low confidence and not being good or smart enough
often manifests as stress or anxiety. And in extreme cases, it can even
turn your body’s fight or flight mode on, which isn’t ideal unless you’re
being chased by a hungry lion (or are experiencing another life or death
situation).
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Stress and anxiety on a regular basis can be detrimental to your
self-confidence. These feelings cause excess release of cortisol and
norepinephrine in the brain — making our bodies feel out of control
and overwhelmed.

5. Unless you are actually trying to avoid becoming the lion’s lunch,
there’s no reason to feel these feelings. And you certainly don’t want
them just because your math teacher called you up to the board to
complete a problem. Stress and anxiety can cloud your judgment and
prevent you from thinking logically.
When stress and anxiety fade away, the excess release of cortisol and
norepinephrine in the brain come to a halt. You are able to believe and
trust in your abilities again, think logically, and feel as though you are
ready to tackle new challenges that come your way — you’ll jump back
to the top of that confidence cycle.
How to Build Self-Confidence
As I said earlier, self-confidence is like a muscle — you need to work it
in order to improve. This means anyone can become more confident.
Try these exercises to work on your self-confidence:
Get to Know Yourself
Knowing yourself means you understand your strengths and
weaknesses. That also means you know exactly which areas of your life
you are confident in and which areas you need to work on.
It’s clear why you would feel confident about your strengths. If you are
good at something, you are much more likely to share your knowledge

6. or act on that strength rather than a weakness or vulnerability of yours.
Take advantage of these strengths and use them to exercise your
confidence. If you know how to do something, be the first person to
raise your hand and demonstrate your skill or teach others. If you are
confident in research you did, share your expertise. This will make you
feel good and boost your confidence.
Then, work on some of your weaknesses. A confident person is not only
aware of their weaknesses and vulnerabilities, but they embrace and
use them as motivation.
Whether it’s studying a little harder, practicing more, asking for help, or
spending a few extra minutes re-reading something, you can always
push yourself out of your comfort zone to improve — and become
more confident — in areas in which you typically lack confidence.
For example, if you’re someone who freezes up and gets anxiety while
speaking publicly, sign up for a class or two. Practice in front of your
family and friends. Then, when you have to give that speech, not only
will you impress the audience, but you will impress yourself. This will
help you develop the self-confidence you’re striving for an area in
which you typically struggle.

7. Be Prepared
When you are prepared to do something, you’re more confident in your
ability to accomplish a task successfully.
“One important key to success is self-confidence. An important key to
self-confidence is preparation.” — Arthur Ashe
Preparation is a simple way to boost confidence. Think about it in terms
your co-worker presenting at a big conference. This presentation is a
reflection of your fellow employee’s work and knowledge, and it also
requires them to speak alone in front of 50+ people — managers,
directors, and other people of great influence included — for 30+
minutes. Sweating yet?
Your co-worker can prepare to the point that they are able to walk into
that conference on presentation day excited to get started. By avoiding
procrastination, knowing the information like the back of their hand,
preparing for questions — or even technical difficulties — and working
on their public speaking skills prior to the due date, they will feel
confident and ready to give their presentation.
Think About Your Appearance
People can tell a lot about you and your level of confidence by the way
you physically present yourself. That includes your overall dress and

8. body language.
Imagine you’re conducting a job interview, and you have two equally
qualified candidates. The first candidate is slouched over the entire
interview, not making eye contact, and looks slightly disheveled. The
second candidate gives you a firm handshake, is sitting up straight,
looks you directly in the eyes, and is wearing a nice suit. Who would
you choose for the job?
The second candidate seems significantly more confident, prepared,
and impressive — and you can probably gather all of that about a
person without even talking to them.
It’s proven that people feel greater self-confidence and esteem when
they feel good about their appearance. So use appearance to your
advantage — not only will you radiate confidence for the people
around you to notice, but you will also use your appearance and body
language to make yourself feel more confident in any type of situation.
Stay Positive
Positivity is a key component to building self-confidence. It’s what
keeps you from beating yourself up after a setback or mistake.
By not accepting failure and staying positive, you’ll actually help

9. yourself become a more confident person.
Here’s an example: If you’re trying to learn a new software at work, and
you’re continually making mistakes, sure, you might be frustrated, but
I’d bet you’re also learning a lot throughout the process.
Once you’re finally able to iron out these issues and understand how to
use the new software, you have proven to yourself that you can get
through a challenging time. This should not only get you excited and
make you feel confident about this specific situation, but it should also
make you feel confident in your abilities to tackle another difficult
project.
It’s not always the stuff that comes naturally to you that makes you
super confident. Instead, it’s usually the stuff you have to work really
hard to get through.
Conclusion
Self-confidence is not always easy to achieve or maintain, but it’s
something that everyone deserves to experience. There are many
reasons why confidence is essential in our personal and professional
lives, but most importantly, it plays an integral role in our happiness.
Try boosting your own confidence and self-esteem in some areas of

10. your life that need a bit of attention or work. Give a few of the steps
mentioned above a try and learn what works for you.
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