One of the keys to achieving your dreams is believing in yourself. Self-belief leads to knowing you can do something positive. The mind is a very powerful tool to shape thoughts, and the power of keeping a positive mindset is in your hands, which will be healthy for your self-esteem.
Here are tips on how you can believe in yourself and encourage your self-worth:
1. Avoid seeking positive reinforcement from others
The world today is often filled with critical judgments that, in the end, you unwittingly allow yourself to be fed with negative comments that you hear and even read. People are often very quick to judge and dispense negativity, yet they don’t make an effort to get to know the real you. This situation is very common in social media, where some have the tendency to become jealous of other people’s lives. Seeking positive reinforcement from followers through likes and positive comments then becomes the norm for many netizens.
If you can, take time to go on a social media hiatus for a few hours a day. Unplug and spend time instead with real friends, family members, and people who truly care for you and can motivate you. In the absence of these people, you can choose to talk to friends from Act of Living, as they can help feed your mind with the kind of positivity that is not superficial.
2. Take time to recognize your strengths, skills and talents
When you are on the verge of doubting your capabilities, take some time off to meditate and list your strengths, weaknesses, skills, and talents. Sit down and write them all, big and small. When you look at that list, you can have a more concrete grasp of your weaknesses, and how these can be transformed into strengths by relating them with all your special skills and talents. Your mind shifts from negative thinking to a more positive one, as seeing all your strengths can encourage you to do better in areas where you might be struggling. This simple habit can drive away any negative thoughts or focus that you may have on your failures.
3. Have an attitude of gratitude
One of the most common mistakes that you may commit when trying to improve yourself is that you focus too much on the future and the bigger picture, or you tend to belittle your accomplishments. You may even overlook the things you have and compare your possessions and talents with those of other people. When you do this, you forget to congratulate yourself for all the little achievements and changes that you are making in your life towards the bigger picture. Having the attitude of gratitude, where you are thankful for what you have can and can do will have a more positive and fulfilling effect on your life.
4. Endeavour to do actions to help your situation
Even in the most negative of all circumstances, do try your best to do things that would help your situation. For example, if you were rejected from a job offer that you have long been applying for, avoid the temptation to sulk and feel sorry for yourself. Instead, actively seek out better opportunities elsewhere, in another time and another day as you will be able to eventually accomplish your goals. When you have this kind of mindset, you will have a new-found ability to look forward to something much better than your situation.
5. Affirm it every day: “I believe in you!”
When you wake up, or when you face the mirror first thing in the morning, take a second to look at your reflection and say, “I believe in you!” This kind of affirmation, when done daily, will boost your confidence as repetition becomes habit, and habit becomes genuine belief. The more you tell yourself that you believe in yourself, the more you will slowly learn to truly believe in what you are capable of doing.
As you do this, make it a habit, too, to remove self-limiting words from your mind. The presence of too much self-limiting vocabulary in your mind can trick you into believing that you cannot, instead of that you can. There is so much truth to the saying that whatever it is your mind perceives, you are set to achieve it. Hence, it is constructive to replace negative words with more positive ones. For example:
- From “I won’t” to “I will”
- From “I don’t” to “I do”
- From “I can’t” to “I can”
7. Take it one day at a time
When you are trying to be a better person, do not be too hard on yourself. Take each day as it is, one day at a time. To encourage your self-worth and continue on with your process of improving, avoid falling into the trap of self-punishment.
Instead of constantly telling yourself that you could have done better, or that you did not do enough, look at it through positive eyes to encourage yourself. If you’ve made this much progress, then surely you can achieve that top end goal.
Conclusion
Whatever it is that’s affecting your perceptions about yourself, know that these tips will significantly help in getting you back on track with believing in yourself. No circumstance, relationship, loss, past failures can break you down this time; keep that mantra that you are worth it, you can do way more than you think you actually can, and that no one was ever created to be called unworthy.
