A 10 minute exercise to… kick-start your self-confidence!

Self-confidence has to be one of the most important personal qualities and behavioural traits that we carry with us throughout life. With it we are brave, willing to try new things, able to create, recognise and celebrate our successes (and move on from our mistakes). We have more energy and passion for life but without it, the opposite will undoubtedly happen.

Contrary to popular belief self-confidence is not an elusive quality that only some people are born with that defines us for the rest of our lives. It is in fact something that can be acquired and nurtured at any time. It is about creating for ourselves, the desire and circumstances to believe in our abilities to activate new experiences, develop our skills and try out new things.

For most of us of course, self-confidence ebbs and flows. We have peaks and troughs in our successes and state of mind, sometimes feel really on top of things and therefore able to expand our comfort zones, but not always.

This 10 minute exercise is a way of helping you to reclaim and sustain your self-confidence by fully engaging with past successes and using these as a way of propelling yourself into a more confident sense of present and future. In other words, it will enable you to rebuild a much more positive sense of self.

Kick-starting your self-confidence:

1)  Think about a past experience or achievement that you are proud of. Either write it down or speak about it in as much detail as possible (out loud to yourself works well – as you are the person being addressed). Try to focus on this experience ALONE – not anything that may have happened subsequently that you feel may have compromised your view of its success.

2)  Be aware of how talking or thinking about this makes you feel success generally. What can you see or hear? What does it make you feel like (ie, posture, breathing, sense of lightness/happiness…..etc). Really try to engage with this experience and be in the moment.

3)  Once you start to feel good about your success, quickly write down a minimum of 10 positive things about yourself. These can be past achievements, personal qualities, skills etc. Try not to overthink it – just go with your feelings.

4)  At any given spare moment take three things from this list and repeat them to yourself – adding reasons as to why these are true to who you are. Stay focused on the positive facts here. Once you are comfortable with these three, move onto the next three on the list and so on.

By retraining your brain in this way, your self-confidence will be reignited giving you a greater readiness to recognise and reach your potential ‘peaks’ as well as stepping more assuredly over the inevitable 'troughs' that will attempt to get in your way.