How To Become Confident? Simple Ways
How To Be Confident: The Quick Fix
- The Five-Second Rule:
Get outside your comfort zone. Don’t give yourself time to overthink. Mel Robbins, at the end of her TedxTalk, suggests that if we don’t act on a new idea in 5 seconds, our brain pulls the emergency break. If you want to get on the stage and sing, do it. You walk into a party and want to talk to that group of people? Just do it.
- Music With Deep Bass:
Studies suggest that listening to music with deep bass can create a feeling of power and increase confidence. Our brains seemingly associate a deep bass voice with dominance. I don’t know what exactly qualifies as deep bass. But I asked ChatGPT.
- Self-Talk:
Talk to yourself like a weirdo. Give yourself pep talks.
- Power Posing:
In her Ted Talk, Social Psychologist Amy Cuddy suggests that striking more opened-up poses, a posture of confidence, even when you don’t feel confident, can boost your confidence. She gives a lot of fascinating evidence about the same, and honestly, you should watch that talk.
But I know you are lazy, so let me spell it out: Striking a power pose (basically any lame superhero pose) for at least 2 minutes before an event like an interview or maybe public speaking can significantly improve your confidence. Of course, don’t do that in front of the interviewer or the audience. Unless you wanna totally freak them out and get tomatoes thrown at you. In which case, go for it! I’ll watch.
Here are some power poses:
I’ll be elaborating on power poses and body language further below.
How To Be Confident: The Mindset Change
Growth Mindset:
I know you are tired of listening to this term on social media. But listen. Studies by Carol Dweck suggest that students with a growth mindset get higher grades, even in challenging subjects like math. People with ‘growth mindsets‘, are likelier to succeed. Most of us have ‘fixed mindsets’. We believe that we are either dumb or intelligent. We are either pretty or ugly. But the thing is…it’s not set in stone. People with a growth mindset don’t think, “Oh, I can’t score good grades. Maybe I’m just bad at math.” They think, “Oh, I am not good at maths right now. I’ll just practice and become good at math.” They don’t think of anything as a fixed trait. If you have a growth mindset, you’ll view things as a challenge rather than a failure or a stroke of bad luck.
Fake It Till You Make It:
This is single-handedly one of the best pieces of advice you can get on confidence.
Walk into the room and act like you belong there. Doesn’t matter if you are a good singer, dancer, or public speaker. Doesn’t matter if you score high grades. If you want to become it, act like you are it.
If you’re not confident, pretend to be. Keep your head held high, chin up, always striking a confident, opened-up pose. Don’t hunch down, cross your hands or feet and don’t make yourself appear smaller.
The point is not how you feel. It is how other people see you.
Again, Amy Cuddy gives evidence and shares her personal experience to prove this point in her Ted Talk.
You fake confidence until, gradually you unconsciously become it.
How To Be Confident: The Practice of Failure
Get used to failure. Understand that it is normal. Even the most successful people face failures before they make it. And they continue to fail after they’ve made it…all legendary actors have flop movies. We just focus on their success.
- Rejection Therapy:
The Ted Talk, “What I Learned From 100 Days Of Rejection” by Jia Jiang sums it up pretty well. It’s a hilarious video too.
That’s it for today’s blog. For more personal growth advice:
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