5 Ways to Build Self-Confidence and Achieve Your Goals

Updated December 2023

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Confidence can be a difficult characteristic to build up. Many people looking to re-enter the world after a difficult period in their lives will struggle with self-confidence, which impacts their chances of success in many fields — including employment and business.

Self-confidence is about trusting in your abilities, judgment, and qualities, and it can be critical for your psychological well-being. Some of the benefits of building confidence include forming healthy relationships, better performance, and the motivation to try new things.

To build self-confidence and achieve your goals, you can try embracing a fitness program, changing your career, fixing your nutrition, surrounding yourself with positive people, and facing your fears.

Keep reading to dive into the details of these important ways that you can build self-confidence if you want to achieve the life you desire.

Embrace a Fitness Program

There are many ways to raise your self-confidence. For instance, embracing aerobic exercise feeds your brain with oxygen and valuable nutrients, which improves your overall cognitive function.

When you exercise, you feel more focused, and you’re able to complete tasks more efficiently because you feel more alert. This can improve your self-esteem, as your successes outside of the gym will improve along with your health.  And if you can’t make it to the gym and prefer to exercise easily in the comfort of your home, consider our list of recommended at-home workout equipment (affiliate link)!

Because your brain gets more oxygen, exercise can make you smarter, increasing your brainpower. Additionally, exercise offers a sense of accomplishment, as you can measure your results and see how you have progressed physically.

Change Your Career

Changing your career can have a direct impact on your self-confidence. Low self-esteem can lead to a negative mindset and depression, which undermines your success. If you believe your career contributes to lowering your self-esteem, it’s important to pursue a change.

Here’s another idea: You can go back to school and earn a degree in a field you’re passionate about. There are many online degrees that will offer you vital skills to improve your career prospects, and the benefit is that you can pursue the course part-time, giving you the flexibility to be with family and still keep your current job.

Fix Your Nutrition

Getting the right nutrients and avoiding things that can make you feel lousy will help you have better health, which is important in maintaining your self-confidence. Maintaining a healthy diet matters not just to physical health and how you look on the outside but also to how you feel about yourself on the inside.

By eating healthfully, you are giving yourself the best gift as you can improve your image greatly. When you don’t like your body, your self-esteem plummets. At the lowest, some people experience self-hatred, depression, and trauma, which could lead to social isolation. 

Surround Yourself With Positive Individuals

Another idea to improve your self-confidence is to hang out with positive people. Pay close attention to the friends you keep. Understand how they make you feel. Check if they lift you up or offer insight that helps you grow as a person. If they’re constantly judging you, it might be a sign you need to cut them off. Those you spend time with influence your attitudes and thoughts, so ensure you’re surrounded by people who elevate your spirits.

Face Your Fears

Don’t put things off, hoping you can work on them when you’re more confident. A powerful way to build your confidence is to face your fears. You should practice some of your fears, even if you’re afraid of embarrassing yourself; despite the fear of messing up, try it anyway and tell yourself it’s just an experiment. In the process, you might discover that it was not as difficult as you thought. You might make a few mistakes, but the rewards are impressive.

Having low self-confidence can lower your chances of success, both personally and professionally. If you just went through a difficult patch, it’s important to work on elevating your self-confidence. Work on your physique and health, and surround yourself with positive people. Before long, you’ll be back in a great frame of mind.