Everyone struggles with their self-confidence, even those who seem the most self-assured. Building confidence in oneself and being able to outwardly project that confidence starts with a strong sense of self-worth, which is at the heart of your self-esteem.

Others often admire people that are self-confident and inspire confidence in those that are around them. They can face their fears head-on and are seen as risk takers. They know that no matter what challenges they face and what obstacles come their way, they can move past them.

Self-confident people look at their lives in a positive light, even when things are going wrong. They also tend to be more satisfied with themselves and have healthy self-respect.
If you suffer from low self-confidence, don’t worry, it isn’t a life sentence.
Confidence, like any other skill, can be learned and mastered. Once you have mastered it, everything in your life will change.

Self-confidence comes down to one question: if you don’t believe in yourself, how can you expect anyone else to believe in you?

If you are currently grappling with low self-confidence, know that you are not alone. Everyone on the planet has suffered from low self-confidence in their lives.
If a particularly tough situation has shattered your confidence, here are five powerful ways you can boost your self-confidence and help you become less vulnerable to all of life’s future adversity.

Practice Self Love Every Day
This self-esteem and self-confidence building technique is super simple and will take you less than a minute to accomplish. The method is based on two well-known principals in psychology. The first one is known as the facial feedback hypothesis.
This just means that if you force yourself to smile, you will end up being emotionally influenced by the physical action. Simply put, just by smiling, you will start to experience the positive emotions that are associated with the simple facial movement.
Tons of research documents the second principle the technique is based on, looking into the effect of positive word affirmations on the subconscious mind.

There have been many studies that have demonstrated how positive, spoken words can positively affect your emotions. Brian Tracy, a famous self-help guru, and a well-known public speaker has continually preached about the benefits of standing in front of a mirror and repeating the phrase, “I like myself, I like myself, I like myself,” over and over again while looking into your own eyes.

While this affirmation may seem silly, the chances are that you won’t be able to utter the expression more than five times before you begin to smile and laugh. Yes, this is a quick and easy exercise, but it is guaranteed to do wonders for your self-esteem.

Check Your Body Language
One of the easiest ways that you can build confidence is to embrace confident body language. There have been many studies on the subject, and all of the studies have proven that by simply adopting confident body language you will increase your self-confidence instantly.
To adopt confident body language, do the following:

- Start by standing up straight. Imagine that you have a string that runs from the base of your spine to the crown of your head. Picture the line pulling you up through your head. - Keep your chest level, letting your shoulders roll back and down. - Slightly bend your knees, take a deep breath and smile. Standing up tall and taking up space while remaining comfortable and relaxed is key for appearing and feeling more confident about yourself.

A similar trick that you can do to build instant confidence is to adopt a “power pose.” To do this, you simply need to stand up like you just won a gold medal at the Olympics. Stand up straight with your hands in a “V” above your head.

Stand with your feet spread apart, your head up, and a big smile on your face. Hold the pose for a minute. As you do, take a deep breath into your belly.
Every time you inhale, imagine that your body is expanding, taking up the entire room. By the time the minute has passed, it’s highly likely that you will be feeling more confident and powerful.

Train Your Brain
Low self-confidence is often a direct result of negative thinking. As humans, we tend to focus on all the traits and characteristics that we don’t possess and continually remind ourselves of the things we lack.

A great way to help you build more confidence is to reverse this way of thinking. Every day, make a point to focus on your positive traits and characteristics. Regularly remind yourself of everything that you have going for you in your life.

Some of the harshest comments that we hear come from ourselves come from our inner critic. If your inner critic becomes inaccurate and overactive, it can lead you to developing low self-esteem and confidence.

Strategies like cognitive behavioral therapy can help you train your brain to question your inner critic. It can show you how to look for reliable evidence that supports or denies the things that your inner voice is saying to you.

Always be on the lookout for opportunities to congratulate, compliment and reward yourself and finally put a stop to the negative self-talk that destroys your confidence.
Remember Past Achievements When you are struggling with low self-esteem and a lack of confidence, it’s a good idea to think about a past event or achievement that filled you with tremendous feelings of happiness and joy. This can be as simple as a letter or email from a colleague praising you for a job well done, or a word of congratulations from a friend, family member, or significant other, praising you for your accomplishments.

You can think about an award, ribbon, medal, or accolade you received in the past for a specific personal triumph, or even for earning high marks on a project, paper, or exam. The point is to focus on something that filled you with a broad sense of happiness and personal satisfaction.
To help you recall how you felt during that time, hold a physical reminder of the past event or achievement. Take some time to look at it, feel it, and allow yourself to remember the experience of that joyful, emotional moment in your life.

Your past achievements are real testimonials of your inner self-worth, and by recognizing them often, you can increase your self-confidence.

Surround Yourself with Positive People
Unfortunately, no one is immune from encounters with people who produce negative emotions by tearing down their confidence and self-esteem. To keep your confidence and self-esteem from becoming railroaded by others, you want to surround yourself with positive people. Look at the relationships that you have in your life and find ways to limit time with, or cut ties with those people in your life who are negative.

Surrounding yourself with only those people who support you, will provide you with the positive energy you need to keep your confidence in check. This should be one of your personal goals, to surround yourself with people who provide you the love, warmth, and care that you deserve.
When you surround yourself with positive people who reinforce your inner confidence, nourish your positive emotions, and provide you with their unconditional support, you can begin to build an indestructible fortress against future attacks on your self-confidence. Having positive support relationships in your life is invaluable. They help to regenerate your confidence when you falter.

For those who are emotionally destructive, limit your contact. Allow them to only exist in the technological world of email, voicemail, and text message. Doing this should provide you with the space you need to prevent them from wrecking your self-confidence with their negativity.
The people that you associate with on a regular basis are an essential part of building your self-confidence. Surround yourself with those who have a positive and supportive effect on your well-being and watch as you get a substantial boost to your confidence levels.

Conclusion
Life is full of challenges, and there are many times when you’ll find it difficult to keep your confidence up. When this happens, take some time out of the day to sit down and make a list of all the things in your life that you are thankful for and all the things that you have accomplished.
Place this list on your refrigerator door, or somewhere else where it can be easily seen, and look at the lists anytime your self-confidence begins to dwindle.

If you feel that you suffer from low self-esteem, these five powerful methods can help you feel better about who you are and where you are going. Don’t let a lack of confidence continue to keep you from accomplishing your goals and becoming the person you always dreamt of becoming. With a little bit of time and effort, you can build your self-esteem and confidence and start living a happier and healthier life.