Keep your posture straight. Hold your shoulders behind your back. Make sure to hold your head high. When standing, keep your feet close together. Relax your knees while centering your weight on your lower body. This way, you’ll stay grounded to the earth.
Avoid common behaviors that imply distraction, such as looking at your phone or scanning the room.
Move your hands as you talk to help illustrate a subject. Go with what feels natural to you. If you don’t gesticulate often, try practicing in front of a mirror to find hand motions that feel comfortable. While gesticulating can help, strive to keep your hand movements under control. Something too wild or out of control may be off-putting.
Make sure to show the palms of your hands when you’re talking. Avoid crossing your arms or hiding your hands. Hold your arms around waist level when speaking. This will make you read as open and confident.
You don’t have to define yourself by an imperfection. Learn to love and accept the fact you sometimes talk too much or that you dislike something about your physical appearance. This is only one small part of who you are. If you’re aware of and accepting of your imperfections, you will feel less of a need to hide or cover them up. This can be read as confident to others.
Remember, you are the only person who can make things happen for yourself. You have the power to direct your life, for better or for worse. If you make a mistake, don’t minimize it. Instead, think to yourself, “That was a mistake. It was poor judgment on my part. I should try to do better next time. "
“I want to stand up for myself and say something, but they are going to disagree with me”. So what? “I want to go to that event, but I’m scared that I won’t know very many people. " So what? “I might forget what to say next during a presentation. " So what?
Never open up a sentence with something that undermines yourself. Avoid starting off saying something, “I’m no expert, but. . . " or “This is just my opinion, but. . . " Also, things like “What if. . . " can sound insecure. Words like “just” are unnecessary and can make you look nervous or uncertain. Watch out for question inflection. This is when you end a sentence as if it were a question. This can come off as nervous, so avoid doing so. [10] X Research source
Select an area where you need to grow. It can be something personal. For example, you want to be better about keeping up with household chores. It can also be something professional. For example, you want to work harder on finding a better job. Develop an action plan. Set specific deadlines and actions you can take to achieve these goals. Follow through with your plans. Even small steps will boost your confidence. You may not achieve everything exactly as you envisioned, but that’s okay. Taking action in and of itself can raise your confidence.
You can find someone at work. You can ask a very confident co-worker to have coffee with you so you can pick her brain. You can also ask someone in your social circle. Maybe you know a very confident friend. She can give you advice on how to raise your own confidence.
Give yourself small rewards. This can be as simple as a warm bath at the end of each day, or a long walk to clear your head after work. Make time for the basics. Get enough sleep, eat well, and give yourself some downtime. Schedule regular self-care time and make sure you stick to it, even when life gets busy.
At first, work out schedules can feel taxing. It’s not unusual to find yourself dreading your daily workout when you’re getting into the routine. Stick with it, even if you dislike working out. Eventually, you’ll find yourself looking forward to your daily workout routine and valuing the benefits to your mind and body.
Do something that intimidates you. Go to a bar alone to make new friends. Try a new workout routine at the gym. Take up a hobby that you’ve always felt nervous about. Push yourself intellectually. Read a difficult book. Take a class in an unfamiliar subject area.
