15 Habits of Extremely Happy People

Happiness is every person's goal in life. Even though most people have no idea of what to do to be happy and what happiness really adds up to. We all strive to stay relevant to our goal.

1. They are not self-absorbed

This is a person that generally does not make everything about themselves. They are open-minded and allow their thinking to go beyond their heads. They welcome other people's suggestions and criticism. They don't take other people's opinions about them personally. They build their character based on well-thought out choices and opinions. They positively accept correction from people and also appreciate other people's way of life.

2. They are appreciative and contented

Being contented and showing appreciation is a character trait that most people don't have. They take a lot of things for granted not knowing they deprive themselves of the small joys of the world. Being able to appreciate someone else for how they have dressed, made their hair, their new pair of shoes, being able to see the other person laugh and smile and having contributed to them having a nice day is even a greater way of being happy.

3. Making alone time and meditating

This is a vital part of being happy and knowing yourself better. Having alone time helps one check on their character, know what makes them happy, sad, set life goals, etc. When meditating, one learns what to focus on with life, what makes their life better and how to better themselves. Making sure to have some alone time also keeps someone in a peaceful mood and helps them to face their fears.

4. Doing things that make them genuinely happy

Being happy is a full-time job, so each of us needs to find what genuinely makes them happy and avoid hypocrisy. Doing what genuinely makes you happy will help someone from harboring hate and toxic feelings caused by forced happiness and pretending to be happy for everyone else's sake. Most people have an illusion of happiness and they don't try and find genuine happiness or what activities genuinely make them happy. So they end up feeling unfulfilled and sad. So, finding genuine activities that make you happy is a great step to being extremely happy.

5. Having a positive attitude towards life

Life brings a lot of challenges with it and the sad part is life challenges are inevitable. People have to find better ways to cope with that. People with positive mindsets have it easier when difficulties come to their path. They see problems as challenges that they have to face to pass a given stage and enable them to relate to things in a better way. Those who are afraid of challenges will always feel condemned and sad because they never know their way through.

6. Being at peace with yourself, friends, associates, and family

You should try, as much as possible, to be at peace with those close to you. These include friends, family, work associates and, even your partner. These people play a major role, what they do can directly affect.

7. Enjoying every moment

Most people take for granted moments spent with other people; either playing, out for coffee or chilling in the house and even time spent with their family. They fail to maximize the fun they would have had during these times. This is also a way of harboring regrets and unfulfilled moments that people have. Hence having bad days and tough times.

8. Respecting yourself and not settling for mediocre

People who know what they want in life don't settle. They know their purpose, set goals and work towards them. Despite the challenges they might face on their way to success, such people don't give up. They are grounded and they don't settle for mediocre results that are unfulfilling to them. They know their self-worth and they work at achieving what they set their minds to.

9. Staying healthy

Health is a major contributor to happiness. This entails having good eating habits. Make sure you have a balanced diet, take lots of water and make sure your meals are hygienically prepared. This will help you avoid sicknesses and stay healthy. Exercises also helps people stay in shape and avoid diseases caused by unhealthy eating, it also helps someone unwind and feel relaxed. Ensuring one is clean by bathing, putting on makeup, perfume. This helps boost someone's confidence and makes them feel good about themselves.

10. Rewarding and feeling good about yourself

Everyone loves gifts and being appreciated. Most people forget that you can buy yourself gifts, appreciate yourself and feel good about it. We all have our shameful struggles or our bad habits that we aren't proud of. When you stop a bad habit and no one notices, treat yourself out, buy yourself some new belt. People might not know how big a deal the situation was or how much you struggled with it. Awarding, and giving yourself credit for it, is not a bad thing. This will help you see yourself as an achiever and will also boost your self-confidence.

11. Surrounding yourself with people and things that bring positivity in your life

The people and things someone surrounds themselves with say a lot about them. They highly contribute to someone's character and thinking. If you surround yourself with people who are always about the positive side of life and encouraging one another to be better versions of themselves, then there are high chances that that is the kind of person you will be. This character building technique is important in our lives. You should be careful who you relate with because they influence you in a wonderful way.

12. Treating people with kindness, respect and being happy for them

One can create happiness by seeing other people happy. This is also a way of trying to live a fulfilling life. Help people out when you can, reach out to them when they need your help. Visit the patients in hospitals, help out in orphanages, give food to the homeless. You feel fulfilled when you are able to make someone smile and be happy. Treat your friend who delivered a presentation. These are some of the ways in which being kind and helpful to others can bring to you happiness through these simple gestures.

13. Not comparing yourself with other people

Comparing yourself, your personal achievements and successes with those of other people is not a healthy way of being happy. Most people forget that everyone is totally different from others and we all have different struggles in life. Comparing yourself to other people is an injustice to yourself and you end up degrading yourself and end up leading some sad, unmeaningful life. You should try and better yourself from what you have. You should not consider another person's success makes them better than you for any reason. Focus on bettering yourself on what makes you happy and fulfilled. Make your own path to achieving your goals and dreams.

14. Have life-improving goals

Most people settle for what they are offered even when deep down they know it is not what they want or deserve. This ends up making them feel less of a person or not fully recognized by people. Make sure you set goals that help you become a better person. Either mentally, financially or physically. Strive to make the best out of yourself and when faced with challenges don't despair. Make the best out of your worst experiences.

15. Allowing yourself to be human

We focus so much on other people and make considerations for them rather than for ourselves. We forget that we also hurt, feel, cry and make mistakes. A lot of people are so focused on their mistakes and setbacks, they forget that they also fall, fail and make mistakes, which is okay. They should accept that mistakes are inevitable, and you can always make the best out of them and learn something. Forgive yourself as often as possible, accept your faults and apologize when needed, or when you know you are at fault. Don't forget, you are just as human as everyone else and, just like them, you also can make mistakes and be at fault.

Conclusion

We are all entitled to being happy and finding fulfillment in whatever we decide to do with our lives. People should realize their happiness solely depends on their choices and perception about life and what it brings with it.

https://ezinearticles.com/?15-Habits-of-Extremely-Happy-People&id=9975274

432 Hz - I AM Affirmations for Building Self Confidence ❤️ Feel Good About Yourself ❤️

4 Secrets for Improving Self-Confidence

This article shares 4 secrets to improving self-confidence. Most people tend to focus on specific areas when they try to improve self-confidence such as improving the way that they speak or give presentations in business meetings. This is important but it is not the priority to focus on when trying to improve self-confidence. Below I break down the 4 secrets to self-confidence.

1. Improve your emotional fitness and mental state

Self-confidence is about emotional fitness. Most of what we experience around the area of self-confidence gets influenced more by emotions. Just think about what you go through when you feel that you have poor self-confidence. Most likely you feel anxious, doubtful, fearful and uncertain. At times you might even feel like you will embarrass yourself in a public place or a meeting. It is not always that we are not skillful, able or talented. Most of the time it is our feelings that get in a way and cause us to be fearful. Feelings of uncertainty and inadequacy are also associated with low self-confidence. Fear of Rejection, failure, embarrassment. All of these things are influenced by our emotions and mental state than anything else. It is not uncommon to have someone who is capable being afraid to do something due to fear of failure, rejection and embarrassment. The journey to becoming self-confident therefore starts with improving your emotional fitness and conditioning yourself to have a mind that supports you instead of a mindset that works against you.

When you feel that you have poor self-confidence it is very tempting to focus on the specific area where you want to improve self-confidence such as speaking or your ability to present in meetings. This is essential but it is more of the end than the beginning. To really improve self-confidence you need to first improve your emotional fitness and mental strength before focusing on the specific area that you want to improve. Doing this sets you up more for success than if you improve your skill set without dealing with inner issues.

Improving emotional fitness and your mindset before improving your specific skill set will help you create more lasting change. Let me give you an example of how what I am talking about right now works using marathon runners as an example. An amateur runner cut corners when it comes to stretching. He or she might feel like it is a waste of time spending 15 minutes stretching and warming up before the run and get tempted get started with the exercise or marathon right away. This in the short-term might look like a good decision because 15 minutes of stretching and warm up is saved as running starts immediately. It is a grave mistake when considering the long-term perspective because the amateur runner might get injured from not stretching and suffer a long prolonged period without exercising and competing due to injury.

Professional runners know that stretching and warm-up before the marathon is as important as the marathon itself and therefore spend time before running to stretch and warm up, knowing it will benefit them.

Improving self-confidence sometimes works the same way. Before trying to improve self-confidence on the specific area of your life whether this is about singing or cooking or speaking well you need to spend time improving your emotional fitness and mindset. Because self-confidence is more about emotional strength and mindset. When you take care of your emotional fitness a priority, your journey to improve self-confidence becomes much more easier.

From doing this you will gain the same benefit that the long distance runner gets from spending 15 minutes stretching before he starts running. You will be able to create lasting change in your life. What is even more exciting is that we the right level of emotional fitness you will be able to bounce back should you make mistakes or something crushes your ego as you are trying to improve your self-confidence. One person said that self-confidence is not about walking into the room and have everybody get excited to see you. It is about walking into the room knowing that if nobody accepts you or if you make a mistake and embarrass yourself you will be OK and have the ability to get up and dust yourself up without being too miserable. To get to this level of self-confidence takes emotional fitness. So first focus on emotional fitness to improve your self-confidence.

2. Improve mastery

Even though emotional fitness is the first priority to improve self-confidence, I would like you to note that no one is confident doing something that they feel they are not skillful in doing. You might feel comfortable speaking in public and maybe enjoy it, when you get asked to sing and dance in public a different story might unravel. Unless you are extremely multi-talented you might feel timid, nervous and hesitant. This is because doing one specific thing well does not make one a master in everything. It is important to practice and improve your mastery level to improve self-confidence. After you have conditioned yourself emotionally and mentally identify what it is that you would like to do well and improve your self-confidence doing. Maybe you would like to feel less anxious in social situations or to speak. Whatever it is that you want to improve your self-confidence on, identify it and spend time mastering the skills to develop it. This will help you improve your self-confidence. As you learn and try to improve you might take some time to master the skills that you want to improve well. If you have developed the right emotional strength and mental strength you will find yourself recovering well after setbacks and getting encouraged until you improve your self-confidence.

3. Improve self-esteem

When trying to improve self-confidence, having low self-esteem can sometimes work against your efforts. No matter how good you become at doing something if you do not accept yourself and see yourself in a positive light you might always find ways to criticize yourself and second guess yourself. Having a healthy self-esteem is therefore extremely important for improving self-confidence. Improving your self-esteem will help you easily develop self-confidence in the specific areas of your life and be able to enjoy any success that you create as the result of improved self-confidence.

4. Train your self-confidence

Self-confidence is like a muscle. The more you teach yourself to be self-confident in challenging situations, the more you get better. Self-confident people aren't vastly different from anyone else. They have just learn to manage their feelings in the face of pressure or adversity. One of the best ways to improve self-confidence is to act despite fear and anxiety. The best way to learn to act despite fear and anxiety is to act despite fear and anxiety. Doing this will train your self-confidence. One person said that those that are successful do experience fear, they just learn to act despite fear.

Whatever it is that you fear begin practicing conquering it. If you have social anxiety and are afraid to meet people in social situations playfully start meeting people and push yourself to act despite your anxiety. If you fear speaking up during meetings start pushing yourself and say a few words in the next meeting that you have. Feel the anxiety as it tries to stop you but act anyway. Many people who face challenging situations and pressure including athletes, sky divers and even entrepreneurs learn to act despite anxiety. Do the same thing that they do in your life, it will help you.

Remember, you have all that it takes within you to succeed.

https://ezinearticles.com/?4-Secrets-for-Improving-Self-Confidence&id=9400646

Remove Shyness With Belly Dancing

Do you consider yourself to be shy? Do you have a problem standing in front of people to make an announcement or to give a speech? Do you find it difficult to meet new people? You are not alone, almost fifty percent of the population admits to feeling shy.

Shyness can be corrected with many different techniques, but I would like to focus on dance therapy. One dance which helps young women to remove shyness is belly dancing. Learning this dance contributes to building self-confidence, self-esteem, and self-worth.

Three different aspects of correcting shyness.

1. Self confidence... feeling very sure of yourself and have complete confidence in your abilities.
2. Self-esteem... recognition of your accomplishments
3. Self worth how you value yourself

The movements used in this individual dance style requires focused attention in order to accomplish them successfully. This brings attention to the body and how it works. If we are not comfortable with our female body, we then feel self-conscience and this will cause negative attitudes in our mental, emotional, and spiritual being.

In the classroom shy people locate themselves toward the back of the room as they feel uncomfortable wearing clothing which exposes their belly. However, they soon discover that other students are too busy looking in the mirror or at the teacher learning the movements. The students are too busy learning and are not interested in observing other classmates.

The shy person will turn to another student to ask what they missed and this starts the socializing process. Socializing is easy in this situation as both people have a common interest in the dance. The conversation is positive and uplifting which is essential to the shy person. This personality type is often afraid of negative feedback when meeting or conversing with others.

Negative thoughts will cause withdrawal from meeting or having conversations with people. Our self-doubts keep us from meeting new people, enjoying life, or discovering a lifestyle which make us feel alive, happy, and a sense of belonging with the company we choose.

There are many other arts and crafts activities which support this dance interest and it helps to strengthen every aspect of a female to feel positive and good about herself. The other students which are young girls and women remove fears as they communicate with other females sharing their stories and how this dance changed their attitude or their lifestyle.

There are class recitals. No teacher will force a student to dance if it is to be a traumatic experience. Most students are nervous in the first performance. However, most instructors will lead the troupe for the first time. This arrangement builds confidence for all the performers.

It has been my experience that the shy individual is usually the first to volunteer to be in every show after that first performance. She has developed her self-confidence, self-worth, and self-esteem. She is empowered.

https://ezinearticles.com/?Remove-Shyness-With-Belly-Dancing&id=10057781

7 Steps to Build an Unshakeable Self-Confidence

Would you like more confidence in your life?

Confidence to run your business powerful?

Confidence to make the right decision and lead people/others?

What would having more confidence mean to you?

Confidence is not just felt but heard and seen by everyone.

The more confident you appear to the world, the better one can connect with the right kind of people.

A confident person, not just catches the attention of the people, but can play the role of the influencer as well. If you want to get heard and most importantly wish to influence others with your words and actions, then you must build up a level of confidence that gives you the strength and authority to stay strong and calm in any situation.

We are surrounded by critics, self-doubts, failures and sometimes all things overpower us to an extent where our self-confidence touches its low. Work on your positive and negative aspect and give an edge to your personality that makes it hard for others to ignore you.

We all are blessed with some extraordinary traits, but we are engrossed in so many trivial things that we fail to realize our USP.

7 powerful ways to boost confidence:

Visualize the future: Imagine yourself as a successful entrepreneur or a successful professional. When you consider yourself a confident and successful individual you train your mind to work to achieve it.

Create a goal: Life without a goal is haywire. Setting up goals help in channelizing the energy in a right direction. And this will definitely help in making things better for you.

Uplift your self-esteem: Believe in yourself and view yourself as a successful person. The ways we perceive our self-image help us in deciding a course of action. The day you start believing that you can, your destination is within your reach. Nothing is impossible for a mind full of plans and heart full of vigor and positivity.

Self-examination is a must: Doubting yourself one thing and being the inner critic is another thing. When you question yourself, you get the better picture of the whole scenario. It brings out all the possible outcomes, and challenges that might cross your path. So analyzing the plan and checking them on the parameter of reality checks ensure better tomorrow.

Feel good: The concept of power dressing is creating a fad and trust me wearing a right outfit and sitting in a right posture can give the instant boost to your personality. Wear what looks good on me

Embrace rejection: Young mind comes up with new ideas, full of enthusiasm, but only a small percentage of people remain in the race for a long run. Why? Our schools, college don't teach us how to deal with rejection and failure. The more open one becomes to rejection and failure, the stronger they become. When you have no fear of rejection, you can expand and give trail to new ideas and plans as many times as you want.

Help others: Does it sound clichéd? Well, helping others not just bring happiness and satisfaction. But it also helps in focusing on what good we have to offer others. This will do wonder to improve your self-confidence.

https://ezinearticles.com/?7-Steps-to-Build-an-Unshakeable-Self-Confidence&id=9833172

What's the Most Attractive Quality a Person Can Have?

Self confidence is the most attractive quality a person can have. How can anyone see how breathtaking we are if we can't see it ourselves? Confidence is an asset that shines through personal relationships, even in the workplace. Everyone respects a person with confidence.

If we do not believe in ourselves, we cannot expect people to support us unconditionally. If we are secure as a person, we can move forward in life with ease. Instead of concerning ourselves with the opinions of others, we must live our life for ourselves. Do things that make us happy and that interest us. If an opportunity arises that we wish to explore, we don't need to think, we just dive right in because that is the only way we are going to learn how to strive and to succeed on our own.

If we are confident in our views and convictions, we can expect others to listen to what we have to say. If we don't believe what we are selling, no one else will either. People aren't fools and will know when we are just pretending. If we want people to listen to what we have to say, we must exude confidence and engage them in whatever it is we are trying to say.

Confident people tend to think on the positive side because they are secure in themselves and aren't easily thrown off track. They take what life throws at them as it comes and react accordingly. They do not allow these obstacles to distract them from the task at hand, rather they calmly and rationally manage whatever the situation is and move on with whatever it is they are doing. No matter how many times these people fall, they always find ways to get back in track. They are undefeatable because they are survivors.

There is no way to even trust someone's ability to lead if that person isn't confident in his or her own motives. Leaders must have confidence so that the people looking up to them feel secure, motivated and driven. If someone is attacking your character and you are a confident individual, their harsh words will not even leave a mark.

Having self-esteem and confidence protects you from critics because there are always negative individuals who appear jealous and try to bring you down. These people resort to insults because they believe that they are the quickest means to bring someone down. However, these people failed to realize that it means they lack confidence in their own lives and are trying to bring you down to their level. But you know better because, at the end of the day, it's not what others think about you, it's what you think about yourself.

Confidence creates an atmosphere that draws people in since there are many people who lack high self-esteems, so, they are fascinated by people who have high levels of confidence. They want to learn how these people live their lives.

Although, CONFIDENCE is sometimes hard to achieve but it is definitely WORTH it in the LONG RUN.

This is an article about the best trait that a person can have aside from material wealth. The most attractive attribute that someone must be proud of is her/his self-confidence.

http://ezinearticles.com/?Whats-the-Most-Attractive-Quality-a-Person-Can-Have?&id=9553135

Quick Tips for Better Self Confidence

1) How to Feel Good When You Need to

Because self confidence and feeling good has a major 'hormonal' element, you can change the way you feel by re-living good times. If you can remember a time you felt really self confident, then excellent - use that! If not, then use a time you felt contented or happy. Taking deliberate control of your thoughts and emotions will have an huge impact on your self confidence and other areas of your life.

2) Beating Self Consciousness, Confidence Enemy No.1 

Although useful for learning about the impact you have on others, too much self consciousness is the No.1 enemy of self confidence. The trick is keeping your attention off yourself when you need to. Here's how...

a) When you feel self-conscious, (you can usually tell because you start to feel anxious), choose something outside of yourself to focus on and study it in detail. For example: examine a door, look at the different textures and shades of colour, wonder about who made it and how and so on. The important thing is that you're learning how to keep your attention off yourself.

It is a good idea to practise this technique in private first. Just sit quietly, practising focusing firstly on your own thoughts and then deliberately focusing outwards onto a picture or piece of furniture.

b) Social self confidence can be difficult to find sometimes because it is unclear what you are 'supposed to do'. In this event, concentrate on what your purpose in the situation is. Whether you're there to:

• find out if you like the other people present
• make others feel comfortable
• find out some information
• make business contacts
• and so on...

It's much more difficult to feel self-conscious if your mind is occupied with a task.

People are often most comfortable with others when working towards a common goal. The common goal of socialising could be making friends, the exchange of mutually beneficial information, expanding your knowledge of different types of people... it could be whatever you want it to be! The key is to have an aim. 

3) Watch Out for Undue Criticism - Especially Your Own!

Have you noticed that people will speak to themselves in a way they would never speak to others? You know the sort of thing - you break a glass and it's "You stupid idiot. You can't do anything right can you?"

Criticism that leaves the receiver feeling upset or depressed is rarely useful.

Challenging your own assumptions about yourself and other people can really help build self confidence. Here's a few to get you started:

1

Those confident-looking people have bad moments too - you just don't get to hear about them!

2

If you feel under-confident, it doesn't mean other people can tell. They're often too caught up with their 'own stuff' to notice!

3

If you catch yourself saying things to yourself like "I'm no good at anything" then rest assured, you're wrong about that. Everyone can compose a sentence, get successfully to the store, eat without choking and do a million other things. Emotion can make things seem hopeless when they rarely are.

Don't let yourself make sweeping statements about yourself - in the long run it is this sort of thing that can really damage your self image. If this happens, say to yourself calmly and gently, "Hold on a minute, that's not true". If you can come up with some evidence that disproves the sweeping statement, then even better. It may take a bit of effort at first, but the impact on your self confidence levels is huge.

Building self esteem is not just about thinking good of yourself, it's about not thinking bad for no reason!

4

Just because you have felt bad about yourself in the past doesn't mean you're always going to feel that way. I have seen hundreds of people surprise themselves once they have learned how to build self confidence in a way that it stays built!

The important thing is to get away from thinking "Why did that happen?", or "Why do I feel this way?" and towards "How would I like to feel?", "In what situations do I feel confident?" or, "What do I need to learn in order to have better self confidence in this situation?"

5

Persevere and don't expect everything at once. Really learn how to develop your self confidence by following the tips from this site and notice the small differences as they happen. Building good self confidence is a wonderful thing, and it's much easier than you'd imagine.

http://www.self-confidence.co.uk/articles/quick-tips-for-better-self-confidence/

5 Mental Strategies To Boost Your Confidence

You know you could achieve so much more in your life if only you had more self-confidence. You'd listen to that nagging urge to start your own business. Perhaps you would get up the gumption to approach that handsome stranger you always see at the coffee shop. Or maybe you would speak up more at parties and in meetings.

You've tried time and again to talk yourself into having more confidence, yet, despite all the affirmations you recite, there's something in you that doesn't quite believe them.

Luckily, there are research-based strategies that will help you get to the root of the thinking patterns that undermine you. Here are some tips to get you well on your way to a more positive view of yourself.

1. Challenge your self-talk. 

A lot of times we respond to our thoughts as if they're gospel truth, without ever questioning them. To fix this, start observing how you talk to yourself. Then take on the role of scientist. Being as objective as possible, question whether what you're saying to yourself is really true. And, if you hear yourself saying "always" or "never," that's a warning sign that you're probably not taking the whole picture into account.

For example, if you say to yourself, "I'm always terrible at making small talk," think about examples that disprove that. What about the way you chatted with the barista in the morning? How about your morning drive-bys with your co-worker? As you start to notice instances that disprove the ways you discredit yourself, you'll develop a more accurate, well-rounded view of yourself.

2. Watch out for catastrophizing.

Sometimes we can be afraid to take risks because we envision how awful we'll feel if things don't go as planned. We think of worst-case scenarios and picture ourselves feeling humiliated as a result.

Think about all the possible outcomes — not just the most feared ones that hold you back from taking action. And, remind yourself that research shows we tend to overestimate how long negative feelings will last after we suffer a disappointment.

So, realize that even if you do happen to suffer a little embarrassment, you can tolerate it (and the flip side is that things could actually turn out well)!

3. Talk to yourself like you would a close friend.

A lot of times, we say horrible things to ourselves that we would never say to anyone else. You don't deserve that! Be compassionate with yourself, have your own back, and speak to yourself kindly.

When you talk to yourself, do it in the third-person. Research shows that this little shift does a better job of building your confidence than using first-person language.

So instead of saying, "I can do it," say "Vanessa, you can do this." For whatever reason, taking this approach tends to give us a bit more distance from the situation, and allows us to see things more objectively.

4. Try power posing. 

Researcher Amy Cuddy has found that putting yourself in an expansive physical position (think a superhero, with hands on hips and legs apart) is associated with greater confidence. After maintaining this kind of position for two minutes, your body physiology changes so that your cortisol (stress hormone) levels go down, and your testosterone (dominance) levels increase.

People who have been power posing also have a higher risk tolerance and are rated by others to have more presence. People who put themselves in more diminutive poses have the opposite effect. So, channel your inner Wonder Woman and take on the world!

5. Remember, people are people.

Low confidence can also be associated with a fear of rejection — we're simply afraid of being negatively judged by others. Realize that we are all just people, with various quirks and insecurities. Seeing the humanity in others can make them seem less threatening and allow us to connect with them on a deeper level. Don't let your concerns about others cause you to dull your shine!

These five strategies will help you change your thinking and allow you to share your talents with the world. As John F. Kennedy said, "There are risks and costs to action. But they are far less than the long range risks of comfortable inaction." What action do you need to take today?

http://www.mindbodygreen.com/0-16428/5-mental-strategies-to-boost-your-confidence.html

Top 5 Ways to Be Assertive and Confident

Could you benefit from building self confidence? Do you think a few tips on how to be assertive might help you? Even people who seem outwardly confident can sometimes lack inner confidence.

Being confident is a great feeling that we could all surely use a bit more of! Today I want to talk about some ways of building self confidence.

To achieve goals in life, these are two valuable character traits. While some people seem to be born assertive and confident, the rest of us can learn these coveted characteristics.

Self help books fly off the shelves of bookstores.  They're the most common books on request at libraries. From business people to housewives, people are looking for ways to improve their lives, and the most sought after self help books are those on how to be assertive and confident.

During job interviews, potential employers look for essential qualities in prospective employees. Assertiveness and confidence are high on the list. People we admire in the business world are often seen as confident and assertive.

Here are the top 5 ways to become more confident and more assertive:

1. Become informed.

One of the best methods of being confident and assertive is to know your subject matter. No matter what the situation is, the more you know, the more confident you'll be.

* Be prepared for potential questions on your subject matter. A good idea is to have a trusted coworker help you identify common questions and answers. You will gain confidence in front of others when you first brainstorm and practice with someone you are comfortable with.

* It doesn't matter if it's a job interview or a presentation to your peers, knowing what you're speaking about will give you that aura of confidence you desire.

2. Overcome shyness.

Shyness can range from healthy to overwhelming and debilitating. Shyness is not the same as having low self esteem. Many shy people have a very positive image of themselves, but they lack assertiveness and confidence. If you're shy, you can practice these techniques to overcome your shyness:

* Practice speaking. People who are shy often dislike the sound of their own voices. Practicing speeches in front of a mirror or with trusted friends will help you gain the confidence you need.

* Visualization. Positively visualize situations and circumstances before experiencing them. This will give you a better "what if" scenario, and help you be better prepared for any variation.

* Reinforce the positive. This is a way of thinking yourself out of being shy. By using affirmations to assert your positive characteristics, you can convince yourself that you are brilliant and worthy of great things. After all, sometimes the hardest person to convince is you!

3. Model your behavior after people you admire.

Chances are the people you admire have the assertiveness and confidence you're looking for in your own life.

* Pay attention to what they say and how they say it.

* Watch their body language.

* Observe how they do things.

Studying people who have the traits you crave is one of the best ways to create those very same traits in yourself.

4. Learn the difference between being aggressive and assertive.

People respond better to an assertive person rather than an aggressive person.

* Aggressive people are seen as bullies who approach a problem with harsh criticism. They would say someone is doing a project "all wrong," for example.

* An assertive person, on the other hand, approaches the same situation with concerns and ideas to improve the project.

* Your goal should be to approach people with positive attitudes and solutions to problems. If you respect others and treat them as you want to be treated, you'll have the same courtesy returned to you.

5. Speak up.

Speak with confidence even if you don't feel confident. Practice speaking this way. The more you practice the more it will become second nature.

First and foremost, you must believe in yourself and your abilities. Keep in mind that some of our greatest leaders didn't start out being assertive and being confident. George Washington was too shy to talk to people growing up but he changed his ways, and so can you!

Being confident and assertive can enable you to achieve your goals with ease, whatever they may be.

Building self confidence will be easier if you use my tips on how to be assertive. Remember, being confident will get you a long way in life!

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