30 Beautiful (But Simple) Ways To Build Up Your Self-Confidence 

30 Beautiful (But Simple) Ways To Build Up Your Self-Confidence 

These tips from Ask Reddit will help you feel better about yourself.

1. Go to the movies alone. Pick a film you want to see and get a ticket. Get popcorn if you want and sit and enjoy the movie. Another time go out to eat alone at a restaurant that you are interested in. Do things like this regularly. It helps you be comfortable with making decisions and taking charge and it helps you be comfortable in your own skin regardless of who is around and who is looking.

This forces you to make hard decisions (the movie, the restaurant, etc.) and stick with them. It forces you to be comfortable in public alone where you don’t have friends to take the focus of others around you. You are there alone and everyone sees you and if they don’t like it they can suck a nut.

2. Wear your best underwear to work. It sounds silly but a friend gave me this advice years ago when I was having a bit of a confidence crisis about my looks and my clothes. I wore my best matching knickers and bra set under my regular work clothes and I felt fucking amazing! It’s amazing how a good tit day can boost your confidence.

3. Stand up big and tall, but don’t make it look unnatural. Talk loud and clear to people. Let others and yourself know that you have strength and power.

I saw this video once where it said that people who make themselves bigger (literally bigger) before situations where they might seem under confident were able to be more confident if that makes sense. I saw it in a public speaking class one time. For example, before an interview or even before talking in front of a group of people, stretch yourself out, get big, don’t be hunched up in a ball. That would translate to you feeling less confident if you were sitting, bent over all nervous.

I don’t know if that helps, or if it’s what you were asking, but that seems to help me feel confident in a nerve-racking situation.

4. A good fashion sense. I’m a guy and I got a few girls that I’m friends with to help me with my style. It helps a lot. I feel much more comfortable and even some girls have been flirting with me more too. Good fashion ups your self confidence by a lot.

5. Keeping a clean room. I’ve heard the saying that a room is reflective of how cluttered your mind is. I find this to be true and coming home to a clean room makes me feel like my life just a little more on track.

6. Do things that scare you. Could be little, Could be big. Could be standing on a corner giving strangers a high-five or asking out that hottie at the bar.

When you take steps outside your comfort zone, you teach yourself you can handle a lot more than you thought. It makes it easier to face your fear and do things you want to do, which gives you confidence.

7. Cut out websites that you use frequently out of sheer boredom, but don’t actually make you happy. This applies to 80% of people on Twitter and 90% of people on Facebook.

8. One of the easiest ways to build confidence is to groom yourself and dress well. Learn to shave, learn to use makeup, get a haircut that looks good and learn to keep it looking good. Find some clothes that fit in colours that suit you. Watch some youtube videos on posture and make sure you stand up straight, shoulders square, feet apart.

9. Volunteering. I honestly can’t recommend volunteering enough! If anyone is able to and has the spare time, do it! It gets you out of the house, you meet a whole range of new people, you get to be involved in the community and make a difference and you can learn new skills.

10. Join a club for something you already know/like. Being surrounded by like minded people makes opening up so much easier. Once you get comfortable host/plan something for the club or take a roll in the club.

11. Meditation. If you take the time to look inside yourself and accept all of the things that happened/you dealt with makes it easier to be confident.

12. I like to set a lot of short-term and long-term goals. I write them down and then each time I achieve one, I cross it off of the list. I always feel like I am making progress and progress makes me feel confident in myself.

13. Be around positive people. You’ll be surprised how fast your opinion of yourself changes and how happy you are and how much you smile when the simplest change you make is being around someone who sees you for the good in you. Don’t be around people who demean you, belittle you, and talk down all of your accomplishments and efforts. Be around people who appreciate you for who you are and I promise you you’ll start to appreciate yourself soon enough.

14. It sounds dumb, but I tell myself “I love you” every night. It helps defeat the negative talk – and if I love me, others definitely can.

15. Wake up early and go for a walk every morning.

16. Studying. I have issues with self doubt, and studying or reading up on different subjects and taking the time to understand rather than skim has helped me a lot. Knowing the material has helped me so much school and life wise. Don’t half ass anything, really dig in and understand it. Then shoot further.

17. I wrote things I love about myself in dry erase marker on all my mirrors. (The color of my hair, my collar bones, my sense of humor, my loyalty, any thing about yourself that u like) I add too it in a different color any times someone compliments me on something. I don’t actively read them but I started noticing the good in my self. I’ve had friends over and they’ve also added to my list without me asking so every once in a while there will be a new thing and it honestly makes my week.

18. Stop watching porn. Seriously.

19. What’s helped me is working in retail. I used to work in a print center (one person in it per shift… ugh). It was the definition of being “thrown to the wolves.” Let’s just say I developed a thick skin.

Not saying you have to go through that, but it’s a good way to do it if you have the willpower.

20. Completing minor tasks such as doing the dishes, the laundry, cutting the lawn, etc. Little steps lead you to bigger strides. I’ve battled depression and anxiety for most of my life and I can tell you that this works.

21. A lot of great suggestions here but this one helped me a lot:

Write 3 positive things you did today. Can be something very small as in “I took the stairs instead of the elevator” or “Said Hi to my neighbor”. Do this at the end of every day. It’ll be difficult to come up with 3 things but that’s ok because you’ve always been focussing on the bad. Soon enough, it’ll get easier and you’ll start focussing more on the positive things about you instead of the negative.

22. Remove toxic people from your life. You can’t build up self-confidence if you are constantly being berated by a friend or significant other.

23. Try freestyle rapping! It’s hella fun even if you’re trash because it’s all a confidence game! To say shit that rhymes and even if it doesn’t to say it confidently enough and switch to your next line. It’s hella fun you learn new words and it makes it easier to talk to people and keep a flow if that’s something you’ve had problems with.

24. Smoking a bit of weed with a friend and having a good deep conversation also can really help. Nothing is as energizing as a good long talk with someone who respects and loves you as a friend. Beyond anything else THIS is the thing that always fixes me up.

25. Go to the gym or just some exercise in general pick up basketball or ultimate Frisbee is a blast, it’s social & it gets your blood going.

26. Forgiveness. Forgive yourself for all the shit that you done. Write down ale the stuff that you have done well. Stop focusing on the results but focus on the process . Be fucking kind to yourself. One you start believing that you are not an idiot your self confidence will soar.

27. If you’re 18-25, go and take some night classes at a community college, will put you situations to communicate without any pressure, i.e. being able to take that first step to talking to others is a huge self-confidence booster and can be a snow ball effect…was for me

28. Just lie to yourself, the human brain is a dumb malleable sponge that doesn’t know any fucking better, beat it into submission with lies until you forget they’re lies.

Seriously just stand up, go look in the mirror and say five positive things about yourself. Do it when you wake up and before you go to bed. Give it like two months, doesn’t matter if they were true to begin with you’ll end up believing it.

29. Do something you don’t normally do. Change the oil in the car, research and attempt to fix the washing machine problem, watch a video and paint a room or piece of furniture. The more you do something on your own the more confidence you start to have in yourself.

30. For me personally playing and learning an instrument works perfect. You learn something and if you are good at something you can record it to let others hear. It’s a great booster for me at least. Thought Catalog Logo Mark

January Nelson is a writer, editor, and dreamer. She writes about astrology, games, love, relationships, and entertainment. January graduated with an English and Literature degree from Columbia University.