Women are constantly told they are beautiful, talented, and intelligent. They are praised for their achievements and sought out for their opinions. Yet, despite being told how great they are all the time, women often lack confidence. They feel like they don’t deserve the admiration and praise they get, and they don’t know what to do to improve.
When women lack confidence, it can feel like they are in a fog. They struggle to speak up. They feel like they are not good enough. They feel like nobody listens to them.
The good news is that there are ways to boost your confidence and increase your chances of achieving your goals. One way to do this is to write down your goals and keep a journal of your accomplishments. This will help you build a positive self-image and increase your confidence in yourself and your abilities. When you feel confident in yourself, it will show.
What Happens When Women Have Low Confidence?
1. Increased Gender Inequality
The confidence gap between men and women can exacerbate the already existing gender inequality. Women who have less confidence tend to avoid speaking up in meetings and conferences, which perpetuates the gender gap in leadership.
Women who are more confident take risks and speak up, which increases their opportunities for advancement.
2. Self-rejection
Imagine if you just told your boss that you would like to participate in a project that you like, you did so and then got promoted because your performance was fabulous? Sounds great, right? But what really happens? You feel like you won’t be able to do justice to it, so you never express your interest. Even worse, your boss probably asks you and you say a no!
You just self-rejected and deprived yourself of an opportunity. And this was just one example! Women tend to do this without even realizing it. That’s how conditioned we are to feel like we’re “not enough” in almost every aspect of our life. We don’t even try!
Luckily, women can increase their confidence. The first step is to recognize when you are lacking confidence. Then, increase your self-awareness. When you recognize that you are lacking confidence, take steps to increase your self-awareness.
5 Tips For Women To Increase Confidence
1. Speak Up
Women who are less confident tend to avoid speaking up, which can have a large impact on their careers. Women who are less confident tend to avoid taking risks and are more apt to accept lower-paying jobs, limiting their opportunities for advancement. Over time, this can limit women’s earning potential and hamper their ability to achieve the financial independence they desire.
So, next time, ask your boss for a raise if you feel like you deserve more; reach out to the man you like and tell him you’d like to go on a date; tell your best friend if she’s being toxic. In every situation, speak your mind and see how it transforms the way you look at yourself!
2. Speak Positively About Yourself
Don’t underestimate the power of positive affirmations about confidence. Once you start talking positively about yourself, you start feeling it too or vice-versa! It won’t change things over night but you have to start somewhere. Stop saying ”I can’t” and start saying ”I will”. This also means accepting compliments gracefully without saying ”No, I am not that beautiful.” or ”You’re just being nice.” No they’re not being nice, you’re nice and that’s why you deserve to hear that. Simple.
3. Journal Your Thoughts
This one is really effective. I’m saying it because I do it! Every day in the morning, write 3-5 positive things about yourself. It can be something as small as ”I cook really good pasta.” Yes! And every week or every month, read the whole week’s entries again. You can even read them whenever you feel low on self-esteem. You totally need to know how amazing you are and more than that, you need to know that you know it already!
Our thoughts can get scattered and we don’t always remember to pat our backs very often so a written journal can totally change that for you. It’s right there in ink for you to revisit whenever you want to.
4. Don’t Overburden Yourself
Yes, too many expectations from self can not only lead to physical burnout but a mental breakdown too! If you set unrealistic expectations and don’t achieve them (not because you’re not capable but because they’re too much for any human’s capacity), you’ll start dropping your confidence levels. You’ll start feeling like you failed. But guess what, you didn’t. You simply put yourself under too much pressure. For any kind of goals you have in life, take baby steps. Break them down into monthly and weekly goals. You’ll be able to achieve them all and that will boost your confidence.
Remember, you can’t pick up the kids from school, do the laundry, finish the work assignment and take a bath all at the same time. You can’t finish a 5000 word article in one hour. You can’t buy the whole month’s groceries in one day. Break it down. Manage your goals and your time and you’ll get rid of the unnecessary pressure and the resulting low confidence.
Want some motivation to boost your confidence? Start here!
5. Give Yourself Time
Take a deep breath and calm down. Building confidence is a process and not an end goal that can be achieved just once. It’s something you work on every day. It’s a journey. Remind yourself that this will take time. Oprah didn’t happen in a day. However, with small steps, persistence and a strong will to stand up, speak up and believe in yourself, you’ll start seeing the difference in yourself. Most importantly, in the way you see yourself.
Confidence Can Be Learned
If you’re thinking that confidence is a ”Either you’re born with it or you’e not” thing, then that isn’t true. Like I said, Oprah didn’t become the confident woman she is in a day. Confidence can be learned. You learn through experiences and through tips like these!
If you found these tips helpful, don’t forget to write to me at aneesha@healseeklive.com. You can share your experiences with me. I reply to every email, I promise! Stop worrying love. You’re enough and always will be.
