21 Ways To Increase Your Confidence In 2021

Does anyone else have a love/hate relationship with the phrase “new year, new me?” As if the new year is all you need to increase your confidence. How much can one person really change from December 31st 11:59 pm to January 1st 12:00 am? 

I’m always conflicted about how I feel when I hear it. On the one hand I believe it’s just an overused cliche that gives false hope. But big part of me also loves this phrase.

Obviously a new year doesn’t guarantee anything will change. However, there is something to be said for the confidence we all feel on the first day of a new year. I believe a major culprit of why we don’t stick to New Year’s Resolutions is that we lose confidence in ourselves.

We mess up a time or two and soon after we are going down a spiraling path of negative thoughts in our head. What we need to do is find ways to keep that confidence up, in any situations we face throughout the year.

While you are thinking of what resolutions you want to go for in 2021, make a plan for how you will stay confident as well. I’m getting you started today with 21 ideas that will help you increase your confidence in 2021. Before we go into the list, let’s take a deeper look into what it means to be confident.

What Is Confidence?

Psychology Today defines confidence as “a belief in oneself, the conviction that one has the ability to meet life’s challenges and to succeed—and the willingness to act accordingly.“ Seems relatively straightforward right? However, the truth is that having confidence can be hard to obtain.

There are many things that can hurt our confidence, from something as simple as not finishing a task in time, to more impactful situations, like getting passed up for a promotion. Add up enough of these confidence-draining activities and events and the lack of confidence can lead to mental health problems, which leads to my next point.

Why Is Confidence Important?

Confidence is something that impacts almost every area of our lives. Socially, financially, emotionally, you get the picture. The point is, low confidence can do some damage.

That is why it is important that we continue to boost our confidence when it gets low, before it gets out of hand. Low confidence can be the reason you don’t pursue new relationships, apply for that job you really want, or speak up when you have something to say. 

We are worthy of pursuing a new relationship, applying for a job, and speaking our mind. Here are some activities we can do to become more confident. My advice is to do at least one of these each day. Mix it up as well.

21 Ways To Increase Your Confidence In 2021

1. Say affirmations: Pick two to three affirmations to tell yourself each morning once you wake up, or any other time you need it.
2. Unfollow anyone that makes you feel insecure: This goes without saying. The first step to a more confident you, is to remove people from your feed that make you feel insecure or less than. 
3. Surround yourself with people who believe in you: Because who doesn’t want personal cheerleaders.
4. Practice public speaking: A good amount of confidence-draining activities have some sort of speaking involved. It’s not a bad idea to practice sounding more confident in your conversations.
5. Do more of what you enjoy: This is a great way to take your mind off of anything you are struggling with, when it comes to confidence.
6. Give yourself more pep talks: Sometimes we need to be our own cheerleaders.
7. Read books about confidence: You know we love to read here at GenTwenty, so this definitely had to make our list. If you need some ideas check out these books.
8. Practice visualization: If you are nervous about something like a speech or conversation, it may be helpful to visualize yourself talking confidently.
9. Practice power stances often: If you look confident, odds are you’ll feel confident.
10. Don’t put too much pressure on yourself: You are not perfect, no one is. So why do you feel like you need to be perfect. Give yourself more grace and the confidence will start increasing.
11. Celebrate your wins: The more you celebrate, the more confident you will feel in your endeavors.
12. Keep the positive vibes all around you: I’ve talked about this in previous articles, but it’s worth mentioning again. My favorite way to do this is to surround myself with positive quotes, on my phone, computer, and even on my walls.
13. Think of what the child in you would do: As kids we weren’t afraid to speak our mind, wear what we want, etc.. Sometimes the best way to gain confidence is to bring out the inner-child in you.
14. Wear what makes you feel confident: If you love dressing up, then dress up. Like bold lipsticks, rock that shade, even if you just stay at home. Dressing up with nowhere to go can be fun.
15. Be aware of negative thoughts, and replace them with positive ones: This is a great exercise to do if you struggle with negative thoughts often.
16.  Do more of what you know you are good at: How good does it feel when you finish a project, or participate in an activity, that you know you did great at? Let’s do more of that in 2021.
17. Listen to this playlist: https://open.spotify.com/embed/playlist/37i9dQZF1DX4fpCWaHOned
18. Find a mentor, or be one: Getting advice and giving advice are both great to help increase confidence. 
19. Own your quirks: This is something that I have discovered recently. I’ve noticed that once I started accepting things about myself that maybe I didn’t like before, I felt better about myself.
20.  Fake it ‘till you make it: When all else fails, this may be just what you need to do until you truly feel confident.
21.  Watch this:  It’s all about the bad habits we need to stop if we want to increase our confidence.

You deserve to feel confident in everything you do, I hope you know that. Which of these activities will you be implementing in 2021 to stay confident?

 

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