Comparing your salary to a friend’s income, your figure to a celebrity’s figure or your life to somebody else’s life can have a negative impact on your wellbeing and your confidence. Remind yourself of your own strengths, achievements and positive aspects of your life to help you build your confidence. We are all on our own individual journeys, life is not a race. Focus on you and your life and try not to compare yourself to other people.

Do the people you’re around make you feel good about yourself or do they bring you down, criticise you, judge you or treat you badly? The people we spend time with affect our confidence, thoughts, feelings and attitude. Everyone goes through difficult periods in their lives or has an off day every now and then but if they constantly treat you badly or pull you down, then this could have a negative impact on your wellbeing and confidence. Try to surround yourself with people who love, care and want the best for you. Watch your confidence climb!

When you’re putting yourself down or thinking badly about yourself, your confidence will decline. Try to remember that we are all human and making mistakes or being imperfect is part of life. Instead of criticising yourself or dwelling on your mistakes, try to be kind to yourself and think about what advice you would give to someone you care about in the same situation. You can also think about what you would do differently next time.

It can be easy to focus on your shortcomings, mistakes and doubts, but this fuels low self-esteem and low confidence. Your thoughts are not always accurate no matter how much you feel they are true. Saying positive statements to yourself such as “I can do this”, and “I am capable of this” can shift your negative mind set to a positive one and make you feel more confident. Instead of saying “I am lonely”, try to say “I want to make some new friends” or instead of saying “this is beyond me”, try saying “I will at least give it a try”. This takes practice and time but it can be done.

Sit or stand up straight, take deep, calm breaths, try not to fidget, and maintain appropriate eye contact with whoever you are talking to, whether it’s your friend, neighbour, relative colleague or a shop assistant. By acting confident, you’ll start to feel more confident.

If you lack confidence, you might feel as though you always need to say yes to people, even if it’s something you don’t want to do or are not able to do at this time. It’s important to try to start setting boundaries and learning that you don’t need to always say yes to people. Look after yourself and your wellbeing.

Blog written by: Vicky Holmes

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