If you have low esteem, you are not alone. Society demands so much of women that it’s easy to feel lost and confused about who you are, what you want to be and where you are going. You might feel weak, unsuccessful and therefore, miserable. I know you’d rather wake up every day with the power and strength to be a confident, successful woman, so here’s how you can work on being that person.
1 Don’t Make Yourself Your Second Priority
While you need to learn the line between self preservation and selfishness, one of the ways to boost self-esteem is be sure you pay close attention to your own needs and desires. You might think that everyone will hate you it you put your own needs first, and they might find your new attitude a bit disturbing at first, especially if you’ve been a people pleaser. Say no when you’re spreading yourself too thin, and carve out more time for things you like to do.
2 Don’t Allow Others to Steal Your Fire
Although there are probably lots of psychological reasons why people bring each other down, these reasons become moot if you don’t give those people the power to accomplish their goals. Shrug off people’s negativity. If people try to rain on your parade, pop open your umbrella and keep going forward.
3 Invest in Self-education
This doesn’t mean you always have to have your head in a book, but it does mean you should never let your knowledge grow stale. What could you learn to advance your career? What topics in the news could you delve into a little more? Who could you talk to to learn more about things you’re interested in? The more you know, the more confident you feel.
4 Fill Your Mind with Positive Affirmations
Be happy for your achievements and accept compliments form others. Don’t shrug or diminish yourself when you’re given praise, just say “thank you.” Even if you make a mistake, don’t beat yourself up. Simply look at it as a necessary step to growth - if you’ve made a mistake it only means you’ve been trying and are perfecting your craft.
5 Pay Attention to Your Body Language
By paying attention to the image you project, you will not only feel self confident yourself but you will give others a sense of confidence in you as well. Make eye contact when you talk; don’t let your eyes go to the ground but don’t stare either. Stand with your back straight and don’t be afraid to be the first to extend your hand for a handshake.
6 Don’t Ignore Criticism
This advice may seem to run counter to not letting others steal your fire, but there’s a big difference between people who want to bring you down and people who are trying to offer you a way to improve yourself. Criticism can be hard to take, but try to get the educational lesson out of it and don’t take it personally. If someone’s criticism makes no sense and doesn’t have a grain of improvement to it, then dismiss it and move on.
7 Own Your Mistakes
Failures and mistakes allow us to grown as humans, and from those mistakes we learn all the incorrect ways to do something. If we’ve learned what doesn’t work, it gives us insight into what will work. Running away from your mistakes and not learning the lessons inherent in them will cause your self esteem to plummet, because facing your mistakes is brave while running away from them is a somewhat cowardly. Making mistakes doesn’t mean you are a bad person, and it shows you’re not afraid to take on difficult tasks.
8 Don’t Dismiss Your Intuition
If your gut is trying to tell you something, listen. Sometimes your body and senses are picking up things that your mind isn’t, and when you acknowledge those feelings you build your self esteem because you give yourself credit where it’s due. When you suppress those feelings, you begin feeling like your intuition isn’t valuable and by extension, you are not all that valuable either, which is simply not true.
9 Get out of Your Own Way
Instead of constantly focusing on your shortcomings, why not explore your best traits? Take care of yourself, eat good food, drink lots of liquids and get enough sleep. When you feel healthy, you look and act healthy. When you don’t give weight to your self doubt, you can make more powerful and informed decisions.
You are responsible for your own confidence. No matter what life throws at you, you have it in you to conquer it.
