5 Things To Do Daily To Increase Your Confidence

Some folks are gifted with eternal confidence that just doesn’t seem to dip while some have to work upon their self-confidence on a regular basis.
If you belong to the latter category or if you are suffering from a phase of dwindling confidence levels, the following tips can help you raise your sense of overall mental wellness and thus, confidence:

 

Accept The Reality: With Realization Comes The Strength To Fight

Many people commit the sin of avoiding the facts, forcing themselves to believe things that aren't true. This could be disastrous when your confidence is already besieged. For starters, you need to talk to yourself and address the situation. Unless you are honest with yourself and believe that you need to work towards the goal of gaining more confidence, you will never be able to evolve as a more confident person. When starting your day, as you step out of the house, remind yourself that this might be a daily battle for some time, but you will fight it, you will not surrender and you will win. Say this to yourself every time you feel low and it will help you to disperse the clouds of despair that have crowded your confidence.

 

Avoid Negative People: Pessimism Kills Confidence

Your self-confidence is bound to suffer if you are surrounded by people who are always apprehensive about your chances of succeeding. Cynical people who are prone to saying discouraging things are likely to rub their negativity upon you. This is likely to make you more pessimistic. A pessimistic person is likely to be unenthusiastic and unforgiving towards himself. Stay away from such people. Choose a group of folks who are peppy and alive. Soak their vibrancy and whet your soul with their happiness.

 

Keep Yourself Engaged to Defeat Anxiety, Self-consciousness

Many people don’t realize that lowered confidence is often a result of anxiety. This feeling of nervousness or not feeling good about oneself often dawns upon a person who lets his mind wander. If you are continuously engaged in activities that keep your mind occupied, it is least likely that you will become overtly self-conscious. When you think less about your appearance, your behavior and what impression you make on others, you will be less anxious. Being less anxious translates into being calmer and greater the degree of tranquility in your mind, the more likely you are to feel confident about yourself.

 

Remind Yourself That Struggles Are Temporary But Success Is An Eventuality

The feeling of dejection, feeling defeated, helpless or beaten by circumstances often eats into our self-belief. No matter how undefeatable your present situation seems, remind yourself that this is just a phase that lies in your path of success. A phase can be very demanding, very long and might seem to drain your energy but it has one weakness that ensures you are the winner if you can hold on just a tad bit longer, i.e. by its very definition, every phase is temporary. There is an old saying in boxing, ‘sometimes, to hit the hardest, you have to bend the most’. Accept this phase of low confidence as life’s lesson that is vital to your path of becoming a complete, successful individual.

 

Exercise Regularly: The Harder, The Better

You might not be overweight and you may already have an enviable, God-gifted physique but you still need to exercise regularly. Think of this as physical efforts that you should put-in to ensure your psychological wellness. Exercise can help to beat the despair and hopelessness that lowered confidence triggers. Firstly, exercising establishes a sense of achievement. Every extra kg that you can pump acts like a stimulant for your mind, giving you a feeling of having achieved something with your individual efforts. Secondly, exercising hard is known to increase the level of endorphins—biochemicals secreted in the human brain that raise the overall feeling of goodness.

Thus, when you walk out of a gym, having pumped to the point of exhaustion, you are likely to emerge as a happier, more confident individual.

~src:-http://www.mensxp.com/work-life/life-at-the-office/5988-5-things-to-do-daily-to-increase-your-confidence.html

Young, Glamorous, Riskless and Broke!

I interact with a lot of youngsters. I mean from age 21 (fresh graduates), 23 (fresh MBAs) up to the age of 30- and a few who are older too. I would have said Young, Fabulous and Broke — but Susie Orman uses it regularly on her show!

I do not think there is a pattern to their financial behaviour — each person is so different that the 'convenient' clubbing that financial planners, bloggers, TV anchors do (or rather have to do!) sounds illogical. However there is no choice — programs / blogs/ articles have to address groups and cannot really be custom made for each person.

Some of the stand out characteristics of kids born in the 1980s (not including even 1979 — clearly 80s ONLY) are nice to see:

a. They are confident: clearly kids born in a free economy (no socialism baggage, except hand me downs from parents — largely born in the 50s, 60s).

b. Job is my birthright: 'If I lose my job in the 4th floor of a building, I may just have to go to the 3rd' — is what one of those kids told me.

c. Brand loyalty / craze: obviously as peer pressure there is tremendous willingness to pay a huge premium for branded goods.

d. No brand intimidation: Having said that they are brand loyal, many of them will happily chuck a job in TCS for a job in Mukesh Trading and Brokerage if they think they will be better off there. No worry of chucking well paying big brand jobs. This attitude they seem to have applied to their college choice too — they need a BE or a MBA — immaterial as to where they have got it from. Very few kids born even in the 1970s have this attitude.

e. Riskless..well er..so we think: Any financial planner would want kids of this age group to have upwards of 90% in equities — but I see them REBALANCING even now into 'bank fixed deposits' or 'psu run elss schemes' — as a risk reduction strategy (will do a separate post too!).

f. They are young, earn well (even inflation adjusted, salaries have gone up over the past 30 years for sure), lead a glamorous life (lets do a Barista or a CCD is the norm), have an excessively debt oriented portfolio, and most importantly live on a day to day basis.

g. One thing common surely is ALL of them are broke! Whether it is because they are paying the EMI on a car gifted to 'Dad' on his 50th birthday, or co-paying a housing loan, or buying a top end motorcycle, 'doing a Barista regularly' — the reasons could be many, but yes, most of them — Boy or Girl — cannot afford to remain unemployed EXCEPT with help from the ATM at home named POP or MOM.

Src : http://in.finance.yahoo.com/news/Young-Glamorous-Riskless-yahoofinancein-1822060944.html