We’re not all blessed with an abundance of confidence, and it can be incredibly challenging to build confidence, which can stop us from doing what we really want to do. So, I wanted to go through a few points that can help you to grow your confidence and build some really great habits, so that you have that self belief and you can get on with what you want to be doing.

So, what is it that affects our confidence and how can we make it grow? Two of the biggest things in building confidence are – and you’re going to guess them before I say it – positivity and resilience. They are two of the major building blocks, in my view, of building confidence in yourself and being able to achieve your goals. Positivity and resilience come together, and one affects the other, but positivity itself has a huge impact on our attitude and behaviour. 

Photo credit: Cledor

This graphic helps to illustrate that attitude and behaviour have an enormous impact on our emotions and how we go about our day-to-day life, and how they have an effect on our confidence. It shows how our behaviour affects our attitude, which affects our behaviour, which affects your attitude, and so on. It keeps on going round and round.

To give you an example of a situation where this applies, think of a time when you’ve walked into a room where there’s a group of people, and they’re all a little bit sombre or a little bit grumpy, and the whole atmosphere in that room is one of tension. That then affects you, and you then get sucked into that same behaviour and that same emotion.

If, however, you were feeling a little bit grumpy yourself and you walked into a room where there was an awful lot of laughter and people having a lovely time, and somebody grabs you by the hand and says “Oh, hi! How are you? It’s so lovely to see you!” or somebody tells you a joke and you start to feel a little bit happier, it’s the result of the cumulative effect of all of that fantastic positivity rubbing off on you.

We’ve all had days when we wake up really grumpy one morning, we get out of bed the wrong way, things start to go wrong, and for the rest of the day it feels like everything else will go wrong too. And, chances are, things will go wrong, because we’ve allowed ourselves to stay in that mindset. Whereas, if we’d changed our attitude, then our behaviour throughout the day would have likely changed as well.

And it is tricky, but you can pull yourself out of that cycle. Sometimes it’s as simple as just having a bit of a smile, having a bit of a laugh with somebody, even when you feel you have to force yourself. It’s about getting into the habit of doing something that makes you happy when you’re feeling down. Whether that’s watching a funny video, or going onto Instagram and looking at some funny cats! Whatever it is, it’s really important if you’re wanting to boost your positivity and, in turn, boost your confidence.

As well as this, I want to focus on the importance of visual stimulus when it comes to confidence and positivity. Above is a photo of the Vision Board I made recently. This is a place where I can document all of my hopes and dreams, whether they’re goals for my business or silly things I’ve always wanted like my dream car, and I’ve got it right above my desk in my studio and as the screensaver on my phone, so I can be reminded of what I want to achieve and really keep me on track. 

Having something like this is a really great way of focussing the mind, and it helps to keep your attention on what goals are important to you. Plus, it’s fabulous when, further down the line, you can look back and start to see what you’ve achieved, sometimes without realising. 

Give the video linked above a watch to find out more, and if you’d like to join me in one of my monthly Confidence Sessions, where we take a more in-depth look at building confidence, make sure you’re signed up to the Academy Waitlist.