Are you overwhelmed by negative thoughts and past failures? If you are,then it is difficult to feel confident. My father’s advice always was, “Look on the bright side.” I did not realize that was such good advice until about 30 years later! Here are 11 easy ways toboost your confidence if you are feeling glum and pessimistic.

1. Focus on positive thoughts.Looking on the bright side meansfocusing on the positive aspects of your life. Focus on your good health, achievements, talents, and experience. Research has shown that when elderly Canadians were convinced that their health was poor, they were much more likely to end up in hospital than thosewho were convinced their health was excellent. Time to dismiss all those negative thoughts!

2. Use the power of mantras. Thoughts need to be verbalized and this is how the power of mantras, repeated to yourself, can work. Perhaps you are dogged by critical comments, desolate because of insultsor crippled by setbacks? How on earth can you boost your confidence with allthat going on? Many experts believe that when we repeat mantras, we canboost confidence. Try a few of these for yourself:- “What others say is a reflection of them, not me.”-“The only approval I need is my own.”-“I am good enough.”-“I look great.”-“I can succeed in this.”

3. Sit up straight.There are now posture corrector apps which can be attached to your lower back to remind you to sit up straight with head lifted and shoulders back. The experts tell us that when weslouch, this affects our whole outlookon life. One study showed that those who sat upright were much moreoptimistic about their prospects incareers and their relationships. Those who were slouching were way downthe list as regards confidence. Stops louching!

4. Learn from setbacks. Maybe you think that there are far toomany setbacks and this has ruined your confidence in getting that dreamjob or getting a great figure. You maybe thinking that your weight lossprogram is useless because you willnever achieve your goal. The secrethere is think of a setback or failure as feedback. It is telling you what toadjust and how to continue on theroad, using a slightly differentapproach.“Life’s problems reveal who wereally are”- Unknown

5. Think of expectations rather thanfantasies. If you fantasize too much and visualize lots of success, happiness and wealth, there may be a shock coming.Research now suggests that positive expectations are a much safer route totake to boost your confidence. After all,dreaming is part of a fantasy.Expectations are based on pastexperiences. Studies show that people with realistic expectations were doing better at getting the dream job or finding

6. Choose 5 things you can easily do.Maybe you are a great jogger or cook? Perhaps you are kind andcompassionate? Whatever it is, choose 5 of these things that you are really good at and always make you feel great afterwards. This is a great confidence booster and an even betterone is to tick them off your list at theend of the day.

7. Seek out positive leisure time.This is where you have to make aneffort to avoid toxic company and also exposure to bad news. We are surrounded by disasters and everytime we log on, there is news about some catastrophe, There is very rarely good news. This can drag us downinto doom and gloom. The solution toboost confidence is to dedicate moretime to physical activity, watching funny videos and above all, enjoyingthe company of positive friends and colleagues.

8. List your achievements. You need to constantly remind yourself of what you achieved in yourlife so far. This often gets overshadowed by problems andworries. These can cloud your vision and make your goal seem impossible. A good idea is to keep a list of your successes near your computer to remind yourself. There is nothingwrong with self-promotion. This is agreat confidence booster. The greatthing about being self-confident is thatyou can inspire others to be like that too. Spread the good news!

9. Count your blessings. My father also said this! Look at whatyou have now. You are in acomfortable space, you have enoughfood to eat, and you can even read myarticle! Did you know that happiness ismade up of 90% of how you actually view your life? The other miserable10% make up the actual circumstances.Too often, when you are not self-confident, you tend to concentrate onthis tiny percentage. Every single day, make sure you list all the things you have to be grateful for. Your list will probably be quite long. That will make you feel happier straight away and also boost yourconfidence

10. Keep taking risks. Imagine that you have had negative feedback or that you have screwed up at work. These things happen all the time and your confidence takes abattering. The worst possible thing you can do is to crawl back into your shell and decide to keep a low profile. Head down and work away without takingany risks. This is not a good way torecover. We need to keep taking risks and keep moving forward to achieve success. That is the best recipe to get back your confidence. Retirement is not an option yet!“If you’re going through hell, keep going.” – Winston Churchill

11. Forget perfectionism.We all strive to be the best, the nicest,the most successful. The list goes onand on. But recognizing that perfectionism is simply not achievable can be a great recipe to boost confidence. Nothing wrong with excellence but perfectionism willensure we spend too much timecomparing ourselves to others all thetime. That is not healthy at all and can ruin our confidence as we observe their successes. The best way forward to self-confidence is to stop beatingourselves up for our mistakes and our faults.“A great figure or physique is nice, but it’s self-confidence thatmakes someone really sexy.” –Vivica A.Fox.

Nice writeup.....