Confidence. It can mean many different things depending on who you are discussing this with. In my opinion, confidence is when you are comfortable being yourself and never scared to continue growth for yourself. Things change, you change and that’s ok. You can be confident while in the process of becoming YOU.
Not to make things too personal I will give myself as an example of how I defined confidence for myself. It’s been a long journey for myself when it comes to confidence. First, I had a ton of it, a child full of confidence in my creations, ideas, feelings, ect. Then, as the years went by it turned into insecurity. This eventually dribbled down into losing my confidence overall. It took a few years to find my happiness with my confidence. It’s been a beautiful experience to experience both sides of the spectrum: being so insecure that it blocked me and also being way too confident that it blocked me. This is what I learned through the process of finding myself and gaining my TRUE confidence.
Let’s get to it:
How can I gain confidence?
Take the steps to get to know yourself first! Yes, this is important. When you know yourself it feels good and you are able to trust yourself. Learn things about yourself and break it down if it holds you back. What don’t you like? And learn why not? Can you learn how to be ok with getting uncomfortable to evolve yourself ? If you aren’t willing to learn , find out why? Everything is about figuring yourself out. It’s no one’s job to truly know you but YOU. When begin to trust yourself in your process you can be your own coach in helping yourself get to the next step. When you actually begin to do some of the things you are coaching yourself to do you gain confidence in yourself.
Gaining knowledge helps build your confidence . When you don’t know much of the world around you it creates a fear because you lack the understanding of things, which causes lack of confidence. When you step out of your comfort zone to learn more whether it’s a having a hobby/ies , reading self development books or blogs, learning about cultures, socializing with well minded individuals, engaging in meaningful events , ect. You begin to gain confidence because you are filling yourself up with knowledge and gaining experience in the life all around.
When you “follow the crowd” it won’t feel so good to your true-self so you lose confidence. When you do things because you actually choose to do so then it creates a healthy balance in yourself rather than copying the next person. Understand, insecurity is not your enemy, it is trying to teach you something about yourself. You will find your crowd by being YOU, without having to stoop down to a level that does not fit you.
True self Confidence comes from learning, experiences, finding yourself and continuing to choose to evolve. Making your decisions based on what’s best for you. You are here for YOUR own reasons and you will learn what those reasons are when you choose to put your best self forward every chance you get.