100 Ways How To Build Confidence
100 Ways How To Build Confidence
- Martial Arts
Martial arts are a fantastic way to build confidence
for a few reasons. It teaches you how to defend yourself, it trains
your body and pushes your limits and it requires strict discipline
(training your mind). I personally like Aikido but there are countless
forms of martial arts like Taekwando, Karate, Capoeira etc. I’m pretty
certain that almost anywhere in the world you are able to find a dojo
with a teacher where you can learn a martial art.
- Boxing
Boxing
is a very technical sport that requires good physical condition and
lots of stamina. Again, boxing is good for building confidence because
it trains your body and releases endorphins, teaches you how to defend
yourself and trains your mind.
- MMA
MMA stands for mixed martial arts and is a relatively new phenomenon. It
combines various martial art styles together with boxing so it is
different from the traditional martial art forms that have been around
for hundreds or thousands of years. MMA is a good way how to build confidence
because it also teaches you how to defend yourself, it’s very intensive
physical training (releasing those feel-good endorphin hormones)and it
teaches you to be disciplined.
- Gym & Weight-Lifting
Good old fashioned gym and lifting weights are a great way to build confidence.
Getting your body in good shape helps you feel more confident. It’s
that age-old saying of “look good, feel good”. When you look good, you
feel more attractive and sexy which instantly boosts your confidence and
allows you to be more comfortable around other people, especially the
opposite sex. Besides getting the “look good, feel good” benefit,
exercise also releases stress and produces endorphin hormones, allowing
you to feel good for a long time after exercising.
- Dancing
Just dancing to your favorite song is a great way to lift your mood and
boost your confidence. However, it’s usually only temporary and wears
off pretty quickly. What does help to build lasting confidence is if you
learn how to dance really well. It doesn’t matter what style you
choose, whether it be hip-hop, crump or more classical styles, when you
are able to dance well, you just feel much more confident. It allows you
to be yourself around strangers because you experience that feeling of
being in the spotlight when you dance in front of strangers and you are
comfortable with it because you are a good dancer..
- Snowboarding
Snowboarding is a good way how to build confidence
for a few reasons. It’s physical exercise which releases those
endorphin hormones, but mostly it gives you a feeling of freedom like
nothing else. It’s just you and the mountain, you can go where you want,
as fast as you want, as many times as you want. And you can choose the
level of difficulty of the slopes you go down. When you become better at
snowboarding, you can choose more difficult (dangerous) slopes and
doing difficult and challenging things like this really builds
confidence in yourself because if you have a lack of belief in yourself,
you’re not going to be able to go down those difficult slopes. This
confidence you gain from snowboarding carries through to other areas of
your life.
- Surfing
Just like with snowboarding, surfing also builds up confidence. It’s good exercise,
you’re out in fresh air, get sunshine, have the thrill and freedom of
riding the waves… and the better you get, the bigger waves you can ride.
When you become a good surfer and ride those big waves, it builds up
confidence that carries through to other areas of your life too.
- Sky-Diving
Jumping out of a plane with a small backpack and the faith that your parachute will open is a great way to build confidence.
Experiencing a successful jump will make all other problems in life
pale in comparison. You just jumped out a plane, fell down to earth at a
huge speed with the risk of turning into mush and landed safely. Yeah…
now you have confidence for whatever else you need to do in your life.
- Bungee Jumping
Just like sky-diving, bungee jumping is an equal way of building
confidence and it can be easier than sky-diving (it was for me
personally at least). It’s actually more scary to bungee jump because
you are so much closer to the ground, and you see it coming at you very
fast before that elastic rope kicks in and halts your fall. I did the
highest bridge bungee jump in the world at Bloukrans in South Africa.
It’s a free-fall of 7 seconds (which feels like an eternity), but after
you’re safely back up on that bridge, every other problem you have in
life suddenly doesn’t feel big or scary anymore. Approaching total strangers? No problem… I just dove head-first off a bridge with only an elastic cord around my ankles.
- Extreme Sports
I’ve already mentioned a couple like snowboarding, sky-diving and bungee jumping, but extreme sports are a great way to build confidence.
It’s simply because there is a risk involved, and you really need to
believe in yourself to do the sport or else you will end up getting
hurt. This belief in yourself to do the extreme sport carries through
into other areas of your life and thus makes you a more confident
person. (Of course extreme sports are risky and not suitable for
everyone).

- Public Speaking
A fantastic way how to build confidence is public speaking.
You put yourself out there on a stage or in a room full of strangers,
either with a prepared speech or an impromptu speech about a topic
you’re not really familiar with. At first it will be super uncomfortable
(and possibly make you feel like you want to die) but after time you
will start to gain confidence, feel more comfortable in front of people
and believe in yourself more. There are clubs around the world like
Toastmasters which are perfectly suited for this.
- Acting Class
Taking acting classes will help you build confidence
much like public speaking will. You get lots and lots of practice being
in front of strangers having to act out impromptu scenes, sometimes
having to be totally silly and look like an idiot. It makes you feel
more comfortable with yourself and gives you more confidence around
strangers or being in front of people and this confidence carries
through to other areas in your life.
- Marketing / Sales
A sales or marketing job is another good way how to build confidence.
At least, if you’re passionate about what you’re selling or marketing.
You have to pitch something to a total stranger, you have to convince
them they need what you are selling, and you can sell them on something
better, or bigger. You have to interact, you have to come across
confident and you have to be social otherwise you risk losing the sale.
It doesn’t mean that you need to change your career to sales, but if
you’re serious about becoming confident maybe it’s worth a try to shadow
someone who works in this industry. Alternatively, try your skills on
the internet with a sales letter to sell a product (yours or someone
else’s).
- Filming Yourself on Camera
It’s quite possible that you have no idea how you act, look or talk. You
may imagine it in a certain way, but maybe the rest of the world
perceives you differently. Get access to a camera and film yourself when
you’re doing something you normally do. And then watch it. Do you
notice anything strange? Are you slouching, not holding eye-contact,
speaking weird, have a nervous tick? Maybe you can find something about
yourself that you never knew, and change that bad habit, and suddenly
become more confident?
- Approach Strangers
There’s no way to build confidence like facing your fears head-on. One of the scariest things that most people can imagine is to go up and *shudder* approach total strangers.
Like… start a conversation with someone you’ve never met in your life.
You might argue with me that you need confidence before you can do this,
but it is in fact one of the best ways to build confidence.
My best advice is to start very simple, like asking someone what the
time is, and then progressing to paying someone a compliment, and then
having a small conversation etc. If you do this with 5 people a day,
every day for 30 days, after these 30 days you’ll be a much more
confident person.
- Ask Someone Out On A Date
After you get comfortable with approaching
strangers, the next step is to ask someone out on a date (or ask
someone to join you for an activity if that’s less scary for you). When
you start doing activities or going to places with people you hardly
know, it really does wonders for building your confidence. Again,
initially it will be scary, nerve-wrecking and horrible, but if you push
through then it will become much easier and more pleasant.
- Solo Travel
Another fantastic way how to build confidence is to travel
solo (and I’m speaking from experience). This is because firstly it
takes guts to travel solo and you need belief in yourself that you’re
going to be able to sort everything out (travel arrangements,
accommodation, possible problems etc.). Secondly, when traveling solo
you are forced to interact with people on a constant basis, even if it’s
only part of your basic travels (like asking someone for directions).
You’ll also find it much easier to speak to people because you’re in a
more relaxed vibe, and in another place (you have an excuse to talk to
people) and also the fact that you know you’re never going to see most
of the people you speak to again in your life. Solo travel is a super
experience and you don’t even need to be super rich to afford it. You
can live in a place like Thailand for $500 per month!
- Say Yes To Something New
If you take an objective look at yourself, you’ll probably find that you
decline a lot of opportunities to go out, socialize or do something
new. It’s probably because subconsciously you are scared and it’s easier
to say no and avoid a potential situation for putting yourself out
there, and that is exactly why you don’t become more confident. There’s a
very cool movie starring Jim Carrey called Yes Man. I recommend
watching it. And then for some time, try saying yes to something you
would normally decline. What have you got to lose?

- Meditation
Meditation
is a practice to help silence your mind. All those thousands of
thoughts running through your mind all the time, constantly fighting
with you, working against you, creating doubt and uncertainty. With
practice, meditation can allow you to get rid of all the useless
thoughts in your mind and allows you to focus on the things you want in
life, thus helping you build confidence by elimination of all those negative and useless thoughts.
- Binaural Beats
Binaural beats are a recent technology with various purposes. They are
scientifically engineered sound tracks of very specific frequencies that
are proven to stimulate certain pathways and activities in your brain.
Scientists have discovered that every thought or emotion you experience
creates activity in very specific parts of your brain and emit brain
waves of very specific frequencies. By creating these sound tracks of
specific frequencies, it’s possible to stimulate the brain to experience
and enhance emotions like… confidence. And all you have to do is listen
to these sound tracks in a quiet place with headphones for 5-15 minutes
a day and you should immediately notice a difference in your confidence
level. Learn more about binaural beats here.
- Self-Hypnosis
If you think that self-hypnosis involves swinging a pendulum back and
forth in front of your eyes combined with the words “you are getting
sleepy, very sleepy”, then you’re wrong. Self hypnosis is a recent
technology (although it’s been around for hundreds of years) that allows
you to bypass the conscious mind and reprogram your subconscious mind
directly. This is so very effective because you logically (consciously)
have no ability to resist the change and hypnosis, and it thus changes,
removes or instills new beliefs in your mind in as little as a single
session, compared to weeks or months of conventional therapy. There is
so much to this topic that it’s impossible to fit into this post, but I
highly recommend self-hypnosis as a way how to build confidence. If you want to learn more, check this out.
- Find Your Purpose
Have you ever asked yourself what the meaning
of life is? Or what you are doing on this planet? My simple philosophy
is that there is no meaning of life, you’re just here and you have to
make the best of it. You can do whatever you want to do in your life,
and you can become anything you want to be.But if you don’t know what
you want, then you’re going to find yourself lost, wandering around and
not finding much happiness in your day to day activities. Take some time
to reflect and decide what it is that you want to do with your life.
Maybe you want to make a difference to the lives of others, or build a
fortune 500 company, or become a movie star… who knows. But find your
purpose and it will give you a lot more confidence.
- Help Someone
When you’re feeling down, reach out to help someone. The same applies
when you lack confidence. If you help someone not only do you forget
about your own problems, but you’re doing something to make a
difference. At the same time, by helping someone it shows you that
you’re not so useless or bad as you think which is a good way to build confidence.
- Set Goals
This is similar to finding your purposes. If you have no plan or don’t
have any goals, you’re wondering around aimlessly and not making good
use of your time and life. Make it a habit to set short-term and
long-term goals because it will give you a direction to follow at all
times, which will build your confidence because you know where you are
going. Before I go to bed I always like to make a list of things that I
want to do the next day. This keeps me productive and efficient, and
lets me feel like I’ve accomplished something during the day which helps
boost and maintain a high level of confidence. When you achieve, you feel good.
- Prioritize
After you set goals, the next important step is to prioritize. If you
have a list of 10 things to do in a day, but only one is urgent or
important, what do you think is going to make you feel better: doing 9
unimportant things or doing the 1 important thing? My experience is that
it’s the more important thing. When you work and you always complete
your most important tasks, it allows you to feel confident because
you’re never running behind or need to panick.
- Learn From Your Mistakes
If you are human, you make mistakes. It’s part of life, and part of the
process of growing up. It can be minor mistakes like bumping your head
or it can be much bigger mistakes. There’s a saying that says “it’s not
what you do, it’s what you do next”. When you make a mistake, it’s not a
problem. The problem is how you handle the mistake. It’s usually a good
idea to admit your mistakes, and it’s a good idea to fix or replace
something if you are able to. Some mistakes are life-changing, but the
best you can do is to learn from your mistakes to become a better
person. When you see mistakes as a learning process, it allows you to be
easier on yourself and thus be more confident with whatever you do
because you know that making a mistake does not mean you are stupid or
worthless.

- Dress Stylish
Confidence should not depend on some external factor like what clothes
you wear, but an easy way to boost your confidence is to dress sharp.
When you look good, you feel good (just like when you have a good body
you feel good). If you always dress like a bum then chances are good
that its subconsciously affecting your confidence level when you’re out
in public.
- Make Eye Contact
One thing that you’ll notice about confident people is that they’re very good with making and holding eye-contact.
Insecure and confidence-lacking people will often avoid eye-contact and
look around or stare at the floor. Make it a habit to make eye-contact
with people around you and not look away when the look at you or when
they talk to you.
- Don’t Slouch
Your body language not only conveys to others how confident you are, but
it has a huge effect on your own confidence. A big rule if you want to
be more confident is to stop slouching. Sit up straight. Walk straight
with your head high. Just by changing your posture you’ll be able to
become more confidence.
- Stop Fluff-Talking
Stop making small talk and wasting words. Try for a while to only talk
about what is necessary. Communicate as directly as possible. This is
something that you may struggle with initially because you’re so used to
saying hundreds of words to get your point across, but if you master
this skill it will make you a more confident person. I highly recommend
watching the movie “1000 Words” with Eddie Murphy.
- Speak Louder
If you’re lacking confidence then it’s likely that you speak quite
softly. Do people often ask you to repeat what you’ve said? Then it’s a
sign that you should speak louder. Try to raise your entire volume level
with everything you say. It doesn’t mean you should shout, but project
your voice. Make sure that people who stand 5 metres away can still hear
you when you speak. It’s one of my favorite ways how to build confidence.
- Confident Body Language
I already mentioned how important body language is for feeling and
looking confident. By walking and sitting up straight, you’re already on
your way to confident body language but there are a couple of other
things that you can do. For example don’t cross your arms or legs, this
is protective behaviour and usually not of confident people. Don’t place
yourself in corners of the room or on the edge of a couch. Take up
space, spread your arms, sit in the middle of the couch even when there
is nobody else there.
- Do Everything With Intent
When you do something, anything, do it with intent. When you pick up a
glass, pick up the glass. When you walk somewhere, walk with intent. It
comes down to you knowing what you want, being sure what you want to do
and then doing it.
- Smile
They say that your brain cannot tell the difference between when you really smile
or when you fake it, and that either way you feel happy and good
emotions. Whether that’s true or not I don’t know, but I know that
smiling makes me feel good and not so serious about everything. And when
you smile you look good to others, and make a difference to their mood,
and then they start being more friendly with you, which boosts your
confidence. So it seems that there are a lot of good reasons to smile.

- Gratitude
It’s amazing what a difference being grateful
can make to your confidence level. Gratitude allows you to appreciate
what you have: the roof over your head, the food in your fridge, the
safety of not having people wanting to kill you, the freedom of being
able to walk around through your city without being arrested, your
family, your friends etc. Make a list of everything you’re thankful for
and look at this list from time to time.
- Understand Your Insecurities
Everybody is insecure about something, whether it be your body, your
background or your life so far. But you may not be aware of what you are
insecure about and that could be a big contributing factor to your lack
of confidence. I suggest taking some time to reflect and understand
what you are insecure about. This will allow you to either take action
to change what you are not happy with (e.g. when you are overweight) or
it will allow you to let go of what you cannot change and move on (e.g.
your height or skin-color).
- Love Yourself
This ties in with the previous point of changing what you cannot accept
and accepting what you cannot change. You are who you are and you should
love yourself. If you hate or despise yourself then you are not going
to be very confident. Love yourself for the person you are, but if there
are things you don’t like that you can change, take action to change
these things (e.g. get a better job to make more money, go to gym to
lose weight, etc.)
- Forgive Yourself
Everybody makes mistakes. I’ve already covered learning from your
mistakes, but what is also a very important part of building confidence
is to forgive yourself for mistakes you’ve made. You may have made some
decisions in your life that you really regret. You may have lost or
destroyed things that were very valuable to you because of stupidity or
ego, but unfortunately what is done is done. You cannot change the past,
and if something is unchangeable, try to forgive yourself and learn
from your mistakes. And then continue to be the best person you can be
and make the most of your life from this day forward.
- Try To Understand
Try to understand why you lack confidence. What are the core reasons? Is
it something that happened to you in the past? Is it something you
fear? Once you understand what you fear or why you don’t have
confidence, you are able to make a plan to change that and start
building confidence. (By following the 100 ways to build confidence that you are reading right now).
- Eliminate Negative Thinking
One of the biggest contributing factors to lack of confidence and low
self-esteem is negative thinking. Every time you think a negative
thought you’re conditioning yourself to believe that it’s true. When you
think “I can’t” or “It’s not possible” enough times, then you actually
start to believe that it’s true and you don’t even try any more. Stop
this negative thinking. Every time you have a negative thought,
consciously stop yourself and think of something positive or
constructive.
- Remove Limiting Beliefs
Limiting beliefs are similar to negative thinking yet there is a
difference. Negative thinking would be talking to yourself in ways like
“You’re such an idiot” or “Your life sucks” while limiting beliefs are
things you’ve conditioned yourself into thinking are true (e.g. “I’m not
attractive” or “I am not smart enough to make money). To remove limiting beliefs,
first you need to know what they are. I suggest making a list of
everything you tell yourself you cannot do. Once you have this list, you
need to consciously be aware of every time these thoughts enter your
mind, and then you need to stop yourself from thinking them and continue
to replace the limiting belief thought with the positive side of it.
(e.g. “I’m not attractive” becomes “I am attractive”). Removing limiting
beliefs is a very good way how to build confidence.
- Think Positive
Stopping yourself from thinking negatively will make a big difference to
your confidence level, but if you combine that together with thinking
positively then you’ll notice a world of difference in your confidence
level. Be kind to yourself, motivate yourself, cheer yourself on.
Believe that you can do anything you set your mind to.
- Believe In Yourself
You are the shit! (my high school math teacher always told us to believe
that about ourselves, and no it does not mean that you are shit, it
means you are THE shit, as in you are awesome). Be your own best fan and
have faith that you can do whatever you set your mind to, even if it
will take you many attempts or a long time or cost a lot of money. Have
unwaivering beief in yourself and know that you can count on yourself to
get you through any situation. This belief is crucial to becoming a
confident person.
- Learn To Say No
Learning to say no makes a very big difference to your confidence level.
People who lack confidence or who are low on self-esteem very rarely
say no and always end up doing things they don’t really want to be
doing. Learning to say no involves setting boundaries. You need to know
what you want to do and what you do not want to do. If a situation
occurs that involves you having to do something that will cross your
boundaries then say no (e.g. your boss asking you to work overtime
without paying you for it). Don’t be afraid that you will look like a
jerk for saying no to something that crosses your boundaries. It’s much
better than being a wussy who lets others walk all over him.
- Be True To Yourself
Being true to yourself is similar to learning to say no to things that
cross your boundaries. It means that you should be doing everything
because you want to be doing it. Create your life in a way how you want
to live it, don’t do something because your friends, parents or family
expect it from you. Don’t be in a relationship with someone who you
don’t really want to be in a relationship with. Follow your heart and
let it guide you. Once you stop living for other people, you’ll start to
feel more confident because your life aligns with your heart and your
desires.
- Be In The Present
A common mistake people who lack confidence make is to dwell on the past
or dream in the future most of the time. The only time when you live,
when you feel, when you can take action is right now… the present
moment. Reflect on the past from time to time and use it to learn from,
and dream in the future from time to time to plan your goals and
direction, but live in the present moment. When your mind and body are
present, it’s a lot easier to be confident with everything that you do.
- Let Go Of The Past
Living in the present moment as much as possible on its own is not going
to help you if your past is haunting you. If you’ve got something in
your past you really regret it can be a huge weight on your confidence
level or even the sole reason why you lack confidence. I already
mentioned how you should forgive yourself and how you should learn from
your mistakes. Now it’s time to let go of the past. You cannot change
what’s done. Try to find a way to forgive yourself or find closure, and
stop letting the past weigh you down.

- Take Action
The single most important way how to build confidence
it to take action. You can read as much about building confidence as
you want, if you don’t take action to change your confidence level then
it’s never going to happen. You don’t just wake up one day and say “Hey,
I’m a super confident person”. It’s a gradual process that requires you
taking small steps over an extended period of time. But take small
steps to improve your confidence every single day and within a few weeks
or months you can be a completely different person. A good example is
when you want to learn how to approach women – you’ll get better with each approach.
- Write About Your Feelings
A very good way to let go of the past or to forgive yourself is by
writing about your feelings. When you put your thoughts onto paper, it’s
almost like you transfer them from your mind onto that paper. They
leave your body and open up space inside you. Anger, hate, fear, worry,
insecurity… once you really start writing how you feel you’ll notice how
the intensity of these emotinos inside you become less and less. And of
course, the fewer negative emotions you have inside you, the more
confident you become.
- Start A Blog
A blog is a good way how to build confidence.
Why? Firstly because it incorporates the above point where you write
about your feelings and inject your opinion and personal life into your
blog (how much you choose to reveal publicly is up to you of course).
Secondly, when you blog (and take it seriously), you’re building a
resource that thousands, potentially millions of people will visit. This
means you need to make it look good and make the content on your blog
interesting or valuable. This means you’re in front of a lot of people,
and although you’re not directly in front of an audience like you are
with public speaking, you still get lots of emails and contact requests
with your readers from all around the world. And as a bonus additionally
to becoming more confident by blogging, you also stand the chance to
change the lives of others or make money. So go out and start a blog
right now, it’s really easy.
- Learn Another Language
The majority of the world only speaks one language. So go out and learn
another one. It’s challenging and takes work but it’s also interesting.
When you are able to speak another language you just feel like you can
do more than your average person which helps with confidence building.
After you have basic knowledge of another language you can take this
exercise even further by visiting a country that speaks this language
and then interaction with native strangers to communicate your needs or
just start a conversation. (This is a super way how to build confidence because you’re combining learning another language with solo travel with approaching strangers. Hardcore!)
- Be Curious
Although curiosity killed the cat, being a curious person is a very good
trait to have. If you want more confidence, become more curious. Find
that urge to want to know how things work, or that urge to visit new
place or learn more. A strong sense of curiosity will help you move out
your comfort zone and build more confidence.
- Get Feedback
Sometimes you don’t see the forest through the trees, meaning you’re so
involved in your daily life and person that you don’t see what you are
doing wrong or what your problems are. It’s a good idea to ask
constructive feedback from someone who is confident but who is also a
good person. What you need is hard constructive feedback, someone who is
not afraid to tell you straight (e.g. you slouch too much and don’t
keep eye-contact) but at the same time someone who doesn’t say stupid
things like “you are an idiot”.
- Take Risks
When it comes to building confidence, you need to take risks.
Maybe small risks, but sometimes bigger risks. You may ask yourself
what I mean by taking risks, but the answers are already in this list
that you are reading. Fore example, when you go sky-diving to improve
your confidence, you’re taking a risk. When you start with public
speaking, you’re taking a risk of humiliating yourself. When you
approach a stranger, you risk rejection. The key to taking risks is to
see it as a learning experience. If everything goes okay then you get a
huge boost to your confidence. If something goes wrong, see it as a
mistake to learn from and do it better next time round. (Unfortunately
you don’t get second chances if something goes wrong with sky-diving).
- Motivate Yourself
When you set out on the journey to become more confident, it’s going to
really help you if you find ways to motivate yourself. I guarantee that
there will be times when you feel like giving up because you’re facing
obstacles and failures, and because you don’t seem to be making progress
in your quest of gaining confidence. If you give up, you go back to
square one, being your old self with no confidence. So, in times of
need, you must turn to sources to motivate yourself to keep going. I
personally like to turn to quotes
of people who I admire, people who persevered and overcame enormous
obstacles and achieved huge success. Examples would be Michael Jordan,
Lance Armstrong and Will Smith.
- Find Role Model
Another very good way how to build confidence
is to find a role model (or more than one). Find people who have
achieved what you want to achieve, or who are living a life you dream of
living. Make it a project to find out everything you can about these
people, how they think, what they eat, how they work, what their
philosophy is. Study them and imitate them so that you can too achieve
what they achieved. If you want to be more confident, find someone who
is super confident and study their habits. What makes them so confident
and how can you apply their habits to your own life?
- Admit When You Are Wrong
It can be a difficult thing to admit when you’re wrong, but learning to
do this will help you with becoming more confident. It prevents you from
being so protective of your ego and your pride, and it makes you a much
more open person. There’s nothing wrong to admitting you made a
mistake. In fact, people often respect you more for admitting you did
something wrong than when you try to deny it or cover it up.
- Relax
You are not a machine or robot. From time to time your body and your
mind needs a break. You need to relax, let go of your stress and worries
and really go back to being yourself. Sometimes a day off or a weekend
is not enough, so if you feel that you really need a break, take a week
and go somewhere where you can relax. Being in the wild or near nature
is always a good idea to relax. When you are relaxed you’ll find it
easier to believe in yourself and have more energy to go after the
things you want.
- Spend Time With Friends
Don’t underestimate the importance of friends in your life. Spending
time with friends can be a huge boost to your confidence, happiness and
success in life and you should from time to time get away and spend time
with your friends. However, it is important that your friends are
people who support you ad who challenge you to grow. Being friends with
the wrong kind of people (negative people and people who also lack
confidence) is not going to help you become a more confident person.
- Do Something Silly
A great way how to build confidence
is to do something silly or ridiculous on purpose. Have people look at
you, laugh at you and above all, laugh at yourself. Take lipstick and
write something on your forehead and go to the mall, wear a funny
costume and go out on the street, offer to tell people a joke for $1.
Whatever you can think of, just make it silly and go out with the
intention to have people laugh at you or look at you funny. You’ll see
it’s not so bad as you think it is.
- End Negative Relationships
A huge drain of your confidence comes from negative influences or
rather, negative relationships. These are abusive and destructive
relationships where people just bully you, use you and don’t give
anything back to you. It could be a romantic relationship, a business
relationship or just a friendship. If you feel someone is taking
advantage of you and only using you for their personal gain without
contributing to the relationship in an equal way to how you contribute,
either tell them off or just end the relationship. Don’t let other
people use you and put you down. You deserve better than that.

- Challenge Yourself
If something is too easy for you then you’re not going to grow and
you’ll be bored out of your mind. You’ll be stuck in your comfort zone
and stay at the same level that you’re at right now, lacking confidence.
If you want to become more confident you need to challenge yourself.
You need to do things that push you out of your comfort zone, things
that you may feel nervous or anxious about. You need to be doing
something that challenges you, that forces you to work harder or think
smarter to be able to achieve it. A challenge can be anything you want,
from a sport to approaching
strangers to even starting your own business. It just needs to be
something that forces you to push your boundaries so that you can grow
and become more confident.
- Control Your Emotions
As you read earlier in this list, negative thinking is very bad for
building confidence. In the same way, negative emotions are very bad for
building confidence. Anger, hate, jealousy, depression etc. These
emotions are very strong and very powerful, and it’s easy to let these
emotions control you. You need to learn to control your emotions. By
that I mean focus on positive emotions and not give time or energy to
entertaining negative emotions like anger or hate.
- Follow Your Heart
In modern society we are conditioned to follow rules and orders. We are
conditioned to believe that the opinions of our parents, teachers and
friends are sacred and that they are ultimately what is the best choice
for us. And as a result we end up living lives where we choose jobs,
partners, friends and even apartments because other people think it
would be best for us, while we are unhappy and depressed yet cannot
figure out why. If you are unhappy or depressed and don’t know why, it
quite simply may be due to the fact that you’re living with choices that
other people pushed you to make but that you would not have made out of
free will. It’s time to start listening to your heart, because with
every choice that you make, you know deep inside you whether it feels
right or not. Next time you have to make a decision,
don’t do something that doesn’t feel right inside you. Listen to your
heart and let it guide you to make decisions that align with it.
- Simplify And De-clutter Your Environment
I personally think that you cannot be your best self when your
environment is full of clutter, junk and unnecessary things. This weighs
you down emotionally and possibly even obstructs your confidence from
being present. Make it your mission to sift through your whole house.
Whatever you need and is useful, organize it neatly and give it a fixed
place. The things that you don’t need or don’t use, put them in storage,
or better yet, sell them or give them to charity. The simpler and more
organized your environment, the easier it is for you to concentrate on
other things and add more emotional energy to those other things, thus
allowing you to be more confident.
- Stop Comparing Yourself To Others
A very bad habit that most people have is to compare themselves to
others.This is not bad if it really motivates you to work harder or be a
better person if you know that your neighbor works hard and is a good
person, but usually comparing yourself to others makes you feel
incompetent and like a loser. It’s better to have role-models and look
up to people and use their success to motivate you than it is to be
jealous of others who have more or who are better than you. You are you,
and not somebody else. If there are things about yourself that you
don’t like, then make an effort to change those things. For the rest,
stop worrying about what others have or what they are doing.
- Don’t Depend On Something You Cannot Control For Happiness
I know that this is much easier said than done. It’s really bad for your
confidence to depend on some external factor for your happiness. If you
depend on the mood of your partner, or the weather or the results of
your daily efforts for your happiness, then your mood is going to be up
and down more than a giant roller-coaster ride. And when your mood is so
unstable, your confidence really starts to be affected. Try to be happy
because you are who you are, you’re alive and you have the opportunity
to create and achieve something.

- Realize That Confidence Brings Happiness
You may not be sure of the effects of confidence because you’ve lacked
it for so long. Confidence is a wonderful thing that allows you to have
the best of many aspects of life, and one of those aspects is happiness.
When you are a confident person, you are likely to be a very happy
person. Think about super confident people who you know in your life. Do
they seem like happy people? Once you realize that confidence brings
you happiness, it may be a very strong motivational factor to push you
to want to become more confident.
- Realize That Confidence Brings Success
If you lack confidence
and wonder why you don’t have as much success as you’d like to be
having, maybe you don’t understand that a crucial ingredient to the
recipe of success is confidence. You need confidence to believe in
yourself, in your ideas and in your business. You need confidence to
allow others to believe in you and in your ideas. Without confidence,
you’re likely to make less sales and less progress in your financial
situation. Understanding how important confidence is as part of
achieving success allows you to take action to become more confidence so
that you can achieve the success you want.
- Realize That Confidence Brings Better Relationships
Confidence is very good for relationships. It allows you to know what
you want and at the same time say no to the things that you do not want.
Being confident allows you to speak your mind to the person you are in a
relationship with, and as you may know, the better you communicate, the
better your relationships become. And if you learn how to approach women, you will have many opportunities for new relationships!
- Realize That Helps You Materialize your Dreams
As if you may not have enough reasons why you should work to become more confident, here is another one: confidence
helps you materialize your dreams. You can dream about something all
your life, but if you don’t take action to make it come true, the dream
will always remain a dream. But it can be scary and risky to take action
to make your dreams come true. And without confidence, those risks and
that fear are going to keep you from taking any action to make your
dreams come true. So go ahead and take action to become more confident,
because you’ll need it if you ever want to make your dreams come true.
- Read Books
Back when I was in school, there was a saying above the door of our
library: Read to Succeed. Pretty much everything you can imagine has
already been said or done by someone who walked on this earth in the
last 2000 years. Books can contain wisdom that has taken people
lifetime’s to accumulate and understand. The more you read, the higher
your chances are of overcoming an obstacle or problem you’re facing. If
you want a great way how to build confidence,
it’s to read as much as you can about how to become confident. Of
course you have to combine reading with taking action, but you first
need to start with reading. Make it a habit to read a new book every
week.
- Attend Seminars
There are countless good self-help mentors and gurus around the world
who give seminars about a variety of confidence building techniques and
personal development tips. Steve Pavlina for example has some fantastic
workshops that you can attend. If you can afford the price and you have
the opportunity, then attend a seminar about building confidence. Who
knows how much it can help you out.
- Follow Courses
A simple search in Google about self-confidence courses will reveal
hundreds of results. There is a lot of junk out there, but there is also
a lot of super useful information. Do yourself a favor and buy a course
or two about becoming more confident, and then actually take the time
to read the course and follow the instructions. Once again, only reading
is not enough, you actually need to do the exercises and take action if
you want to improve your level of confidence. To save you time and
money from buying junk courses, I personally recommend this course for overcoming shyness and social anxiety, and becoming a super confident person. Alternatively check out our confidence training manual.
- Watch Inspiring Movies
Movies are good for more than just entertainment. Many movies contain a
strong message, and have actors and actresses who play roles of very
confident, respectful and noble people. You can learn a lot from
watching inspiring movies. A good example would be the movie The Pursuit
of Happiness starring Will Smith. It shows how against all odds, a man
with enough determination to succeed will eventually succeed if he tries
hard enough and doesn’t give up.
- Listen To Uplifting Music
Music is among the best things that life has to offer. A simple song can
change your mood even when you are angry or sad. Make a selection of
uplifting songs that you can listen to when you wake up, go to gym or
even when you’re driving in your car. Uplifting music can do wonders for
your mood and when you’re in a good mood, you feel more confident to do
anything you want.
- Break Bad Habits
This refers to changing habits that contribute to or are responsible for
your lack of confidence. It includes every bad habit you have ranging
from bad body language, to limiting beliefs to choosing to stand or sit
in the corner or the back of the room etc. Make a list of all your bad
habits and start changing them one at a time. The more bad habits you
eliminate, the easier it will be to become confident.
- Eliminate Crutches
Another great way how to build confidence
is to eliminate your crutches. Now you may be thinking, “I’m not
disabled, I don’t have crutches”. I’m talking about the metaphorical
kind of crutches. Crutches that you rely on for support or temporary
confidence. Things like alcohol, cigarettes, coffee, a special watch,
your favorite shoes. You don’t need these things to be confident, and
the sooner you realize that you don’t need some substance or special
something to feel confident, the sooner you can really let your natural
confidence out.
- Create Something
For some reason it always brings me pleasure and joy when I create something.
It doesn’t really matter what it is, but the fact that my hard work
created something our of nothing always lifts my mood and boosts my
confidence. Think about making music, pottery, drawing, woodwork,
building a shed… whatever you enjoy doing, as long as it means that you
create something.
- Find A Mentor
I’ve mentioned finding role-models to help you become more confident.
What’s even better is to find a mentor, someone who will take you by the
hand and train you to become more confident. Someone who is quick to
see what you are doing wrong, and who can get you to push your comfort
zone. Someone who will stimulate you to build your confidence. You can
look for a confidence coach, or simply just find a friend or colleague
who is super confident and ask him if he or she is willing to be your
mentor in return for something they want (money or help or even you
mentoring them at something they need help with).
- Throw A Party
If it’s too scary to throw a party, just organize a small get-together
with some of your best friends. Tell you friends they can bring some of
their own friends too. Keep it simple, have some snacks and drinks,
maybe organize a barbeque. It will help your confidence because you’ll
be the cool person who organized the party, you’re responsible for other
people’s fun. They’ll thank you for showing them a good time. And
you’ll meet new and interesting people who show up at your party.
- Have Fun
Some people are just too serious and forget how to have fun. Does this
sound like you? Make it a point to go out and do something dun every now
and then. Go to a club, go to a movie, go play a game of paintball.
When you have fun your mood becomes better, your stress and worries fade
away and it’s easier to be confident with other things in your life.
- Take Responsibility For Something
A good way how to build confidence
is to be responsible for something or someone. When you are responsible
for something not only does it help you grow up faster and makes you
feel important, you need to believe in yourself because you are the one
who has to handle things, there is nobody to do it for you. You could
for example get a pet that you need to take care of, or you can
volunteer to lead a group or teach a class.
- Start Over
Maybe it’s time to cut the loose ends, let go of your past, forgive
yourself and start over. Start a new life. Get a new job. Make new
friends. Find a new partner for a relationship. It can sound harsh, but
if you feel that it would be best for you and you know in your heart
that you would be much better off with a fresh start, then go for it.
Don’t keep walking the same path if it’s been making you unhappy and
depressed all your life.
- Make The Decision To Change
Have you consciously decided that you want to be more confident? That
you want to be SUPER confident? I know that you want to be more
confident, and kind of wish for it. But until you actively decide

- Visualize
If you spend a little bit of time focusing on your goals (in this case
becoming more confident) then you are in fact programming your
subconscious mind with your desires. Your subconscious mind can then
guide you and help you make decisions that will help you indeed become
more confident. I’ve read a couple of interesting biographies about
successful people who attribute their success to daily visualization of
their goals. Napoleon Hill even talks about this concept in great detail
in his popular book Think and Grow Rich.
- Step Into Someone Else’s Shoes
A change of perspective can do wonders for your confidence level. Take
some time to imagine stepping into the shoes of someone else. Maybe
shadow someone for a few days, or if you have someone who trusts you and
lets them be you for a day, go for it. See what it’s like living the
life of someone who is confident, and realize that you can do exactly
the same. You are confident, you just don’t know it yet.
- Remember What You’re Good At
People often make the mistake of focusing on their weaknesses and
faults. When you do this, you’re constantly destroying your confidence
and self-esteem and there’s no chance you’re going to be able to build confidence.
I don’t care what you say, there is something that you are good at.
Think about what you are good at, and focus on those things. You can
pull a lot of confidence from the things you are good at and apply it to
other areas of your life.
- Fix Something
There comes great pleasure from fixing something that is broken. And not
only does it bring joy, it also boosts your confidence enormously. It
lets you see that you are good at something, that you have skills, that
you are valuable. And this belief in yourself helps you build confidence. The stronger your belief in yourself, the greater your confidence.
- Post Sticky Notes To Remind Yourself
Are you forgetful or do you lose focus quickly? In that case it would be
a good idea to put sticky notes around your house, work and in your car
to remind you to be confident. You could write down points from this
list on different sticky notes and it will help you stay on track with
building your confidence because you’re constantly reminded of what you
need to be doing (and what you do not need to be doing).
- Eat Healthier
Exercise is not the only way to get a good body. The food you eat and
your diet plays a huge role in how you look, how healthy you are and how
you feel. And of course, when you look good and feel good, your
confidence automatically becomes higher. So take a closer look at what
you are eating. Switch to a diet rich in fruits, vegetables and lean
protein, while cutting out as many processed foods, sugars and alcohol
as you can.
- Cleanse Your Body
From time to time it can do wonders for your body if you do a cleanse. A
cleanse means exactly that, cleaning your body and ridding it from
built up toxins. There are various types of cleanses you can follow, one
being The Master Cleanse which is a special program where you drink
only water, lemon juice, maple syrup and some sesame seed husks. Another
good way to cleanse your body is to drink nothing but vegetable juice
for 3-5 days, no solid food, no processed food.
- Stop Trying To Be Perfect
A big obstruction to being or becoming confident is perfectionism. When
you constantly try to be perfect you’re constantly being very critical
of yourself and you’re very likely going to be unhappy with yourself
most of the time because nobody is perfect. It’s good to do your best
with everything you do and be the best person who you can be, but let go
of trying to be 100% perfect.
- Stop Idolizing Others
Idolizing others is similar to comparing yourself to others. Stop
putting other people on a pedestal It just makes you feel inferior and
makes you feel like you are not good enough or worthy to be alive. You
can look up to people and use them as role-models or as inspiration for
you to build confidence easier or faster, but don’t idolize them.
- Stop Asking For Permission
If you want to build confidence,
stop asking people for permission. Do first and ask for forgiveness
later. This will teach you to believe in yourself and to believe in your
idea or your ability to make something work, because if it doesn’t work
you’re accountable for it. Of course if it comes down to something
important and you legally need someone’s permission, then it’s better to
do that, but for the smaller things, stop asking the permission of
others.
- Focus On Solutions Instead Of Problems
There are two sides to a problem: the problem and the solution. Many
people focus just on problems, and guess what… this is extremely
negative and destroys confidence very quickly. Try to focus on
solutions, shift your energy to finding a way to solve a problem rather
than focus on the problem itself and complain about how it’s making your
life difficult.
- Realize You Are Not Alone
The state that you’re in right now, and your life situation is one that
thousands if not millions of people all around the world share with you.
You’re not alone with your fears, insecurities and lack of confidence,
and this knowledge should make you feel a lot more comfortable. The only
question is that just because others have the same problem as you, are
you going to settle for staying in this same situation or are you going
to do whatever it takes to become more confident and create the life you
want to be living?

- Put Fear Aside
Fear is a totally natural phenomenon. It’s designed by evolution to keep
us safe and protect us, but in today’s society we often allow fear to
cripple us and hold us down. Fears are often irrational (like the fear
of approaching
a stranger) and serve no real purpose except to hold us back from
growth and success. Try to put your fear aside and do what you’ve always
been afraid of doing.
- Be Patient
Out of these 100 ways how to build confidence,
being patient is the most important one. Building confidence takes
time, it’s an evolution. You don’t wake up one day and become a super
confident person. You need to take action, small steps, for days, weeks
and sometimes even months before you see a big shift in confidence.
Sure, you can get temporary boosts in confidence, but before you truly
become a confident person at your core, it takes time. So don’t give up
when you don’t see immediate results, or when you have a bit of a
relapse into lacking confidence. Just be patient and keep working hard
at building your confidence.
- Subscribe To This Blog
If you really want to become a super confident person and as a result
become happier, more successful and more free in your life, then you
should subscribe to the email newsletter of this blog. I will send you
daily tips, advice and examples how to build your confidence and how to
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- As An Extra Tip…
This list contains pretty much every imaginable way how to build confidence
and become a confident person. You’re likely reading this list because
you need more confidence in your life, so as a final way to help you
become more confident, I highly recommend you read this book and download our confidence training manual.
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