Building self-confidence is a lifelong journey, and incorporating confidence building exercises into your daily routine can help strengthen your belief in yourself and your abilities.
Throughout their life, many people have varying degrees of confidence: a lot, little, and just enough. Depending on our surroundings, including the people around us, our jobs or schools, and our experiences, our confidence levels can fluctuate.
Being Confident Means Trusting Your Abilities And Self-Worth
Perhaps you were the kid in class who always raised their hand with confidence. Or perhaps, as an adult, you possess the confidence to speak in front of crowds? Maybe as an adult, you avoid speaking in front of big crowds of people, or maybe you were the child who lacked the courage to speak up in class. Regardless of the confidence you have had throughout your life, it can always be built and improved!
Being confident involves having trust in our abilities and self-worth. It is important to point out that having confidence does not equate to being conceited and believing we are superior to everyone else.
Confidence is a feeling that helps us succeed in life and gives us a sense that we can accomplish anything. Additionally, it boosts our self-assurance and, eventually, our self-esteem.
5 Confidence Building Exercises
Exercises aimed at boosting our confidence can be put into action! These exercises may be modified to suit your needs and can be done anywhere, making them accessible whether you’re at work, school, or in your day-to-day life.
Positive Affirmations
Saying a positive self-affirmation aloud can be a great exercise to incorporate at the beginning, middle, or end of your day. Saying these affirmations while gazing in the mirror may help increase self-confidence! Here are a few affirmation examples:
- “I have faith in my abilities”
- “I deserve to be happy”
- “I am smart, strong, and kind”
- “I am strong enough to face any challenge”
- “I can make mistakes and start over because I’m a human”
Visualization
By using visualization, we may make things seem more attainable. We could demonstrate to ourselves that it is possible to achieve our goals by visualizing ourselves succeeding in our ideal lives, careers, homes, or social circles.
To illustrate, you can picture yourself in a challenging situation, however, you manage to succeed through it. This achievement could provide you with the self-confidence you need in reality!
Leaving Your Comfort Zone and Establishing Small, Achievable Goals
Setting and achieving goals for ourselves could boost our self-confidence. To prevent setting ourselves up for failure, we should be realistic. Creating smaller, achievable goals gives us confidence when we accomplish them. Getting out of our comfort zone can be frightening!
Leaving your comfort zone could give you the confidence that you can achieve things that were initially uncomfortable. Nonetheless, taking risks, even if they make us uneasy, may boost our confidence.
Using The SMART Goal Structure
We can utilize the SMART goal structure when establishing these objectives, which calls for the goal to be specific, measurable, action-oriented, realistic, and time-bound.
- Going outside for a walk
- Trying a new hobby
- Reading five pages of a book
A SMART that goal incorporates both physical and mental self-confidence:
S: Every day, I’m going to go on a walk and focus on positive self-talk
M: I’ll use my watch to keep track of my walks and record the positive affirmations afterward
A: Due to my hectic schedule, I can go for walks at any time of day.
R: Taking a walk will improve my physical well-being, and talking to myself positively will boost my confidence.
T: I will complete this walk and positive self-talk for the next week
Challenging Negative Self-Talk
Since we are human, we occasionally may speak negatively about ourselves. Social media, our surroundings, and our sense of self-worth can all contribute to negative self-talk. Determining whether our negative self-talk is true can be aided by challenging it. Being more realistic and rephrasing negative self-talk and beliefs can help us become more confident.
- “Is this thought I’m having logical?”
- “Is there evidence to back up this negative self-perception?”
- “Would I say this to a friend, relative, or other loved one?”
Small Wins & Self-Compassion
Small wins should be celebrated and acknowledged since they give us positive feedback, which eventually boosts our confidence. Remembering our small wins is crucial because it is simple to get discouraged and feel bad about minor setbacks. It’s essential to practice self-compassion even when we lose.
The pathway to developing self-confidence is to be kind to ourselves, forgive ourselves, and learn from our mistakes.
Small wins could be:
- Reading one chapter of a book
- Going for a short walk
- Brushing your hair in the morning
- Going to the gym
- Completing a to-do list
Go Beyond Confidence Building Exercises: Therapy Support
Whether you are a teen who is struggling with self-esteem, or an adult who finds it hard to be confident, these confidence building exercises are a first step. However, if you still need help, the team at Rebound Total Health is here to provide support.
Book a therapy session! Connect with a therapist today and get the support you need. At Rebound Total Health in Hamilton, Ontario, we offer in-person therapy as well as virtual online counselling.
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References
HPA/LiveWell. (2021, May 20). How to make SMART Goals – HPA/LiveWell. HPA/LiveWell.
McGowan, E. (2025, January 6). 99 positive morning affirmations you can use daily – the good trade. The Good Trade.