1. Recall a time or an experience you once feared or faced difficulties with before but now relatively easy to do.
A drop in confidence level is common when we are trying to conquer obstacles ahead of us, hence thinking about a time when you felt as though you could not accomplish something but now feel comfortable with, helps you believe in yourself and the motivation to press on.
2. Take a step back and view the distressing situation from another perspective.
When our self-esteem is hurt, we tend to spiral into an emotional downfall thinking about how we are a failure in life, leading to self-doubt and many other negative thoughts. To curb this, balance your thinking by being objective and specific in your thoughts about what really happened and whether it is really something you should criticize yourself about.
3. Question who you are comparing yourself to.
When a situation brings our confidence level down, it makes us question our own abilities to make decisions. This leads us to compare ourselves to others with way more significant achievements, then criticizing ourselves for not performing as well as them. However, what people fail to know is that successful people face obstacles along the way too. They too, have experienced failures and overcame certain barriers during their route to success. They did not go through an easy path and had also gone through hard work and determination to get to where they are today. Understand this and view it as a form of encouragement to continue working towards your goals. Whenever you experience a failure, it just means you are gradually getting closer to success.
4. Know that questioning your own abilities does not mean you are going in the wrong direction.
When we doubt ourselves, it does not necessarily mean we are doing things the wrong way. It is just a feeling triggered when we are facing a tough or new situation which makes us uncertain. Despite it being a negative feeling, doubting ourselves can be advantageous as it acts as a self-discovery of how we can improve on ourselves. From there, we can focus on bettering those aspects instead of aiming for perfection.
5. Be aware of how you can make yourself feel better and re-motivate yourself during tough times.
You can engage in find ways to motivate yourself and come back up through social activities like going out with your friends or talking to your loved ones regarding a situation that’s making you feel distressed. Other ways include slow breathing, exercising, taking a nap, meditation, yoga or even as simple as having an early night. Using your favorite behavioral strategy such as treating yourself to something of your interest (eg. Food or movie) works too.
When your confidence gets beaten down, you may pick a few strategies from this article and try them out. not every strategy will be effective for you as it varies from individual to individual, hence try out a few different ones to determine which are the ones that work best for you.
Category(s):Adjusting to Change / Life Transitions, Adult psychological development, Health Psychology, Mindfulness, Self-Care / Self Compassion, Self-Confidence, Self-Criticism, Self-Doubt, Self-Esteem
Source material from Psychology Today
