How to become more self-confident

If there is one thing that people wished they could wave a magic wand and suddenly be different about themselves, it's being more self-confident. Sure people wish they could lose weight and have a buff body, negotiate like a champ so they could make better business deals, and attract more gorgeous and attractive members of the opposite sex, but those are mere wishes. People know that being more self-confident can lead them to achieve just about any goal they set.

So what are the keys to self-confidence?

Sucess.com reminds people that unlike other skills like typing, computer coding or learning to fly and airplane. The reason is that confidence is less a skill and more of an emotion. So you need to train yourself, over and over to keep building that emotion to fruition.

Meanwhile, it is important to remind potential entrepreneurs of a primary and fundamental rule of self-confidence: "fake it till you make it."

The plain fact is, that perhaps 90 percent or more of seemingly confident men and women got that wake by pretending to be what other people saw of them. Maybe they were a first-time actor or director in a film and had to go to the bathroom 10 times per day to throw up in the commode, but they got finished it, and only later did the feelings of self-confidence come.

Francis Ford Coppola, academy award winner for best picture for the "Godfather" reports his feeling throughout the making of the film in an interview to aspiring filmmakers and reporting that he felt every single day that not only would he get fired from the film, but would never direct again. So fake it till you make it is not exactly poor advice.

Finally, The Independent a British publication, asserts that fairytales, particularly such as Cinderella and Snow White teach girls in particular, that they can only be saved by a man from their distress.

Breaking away from fairy tales that we have been taught by our families such as "get married by the time you are 30 or die alone," or that the best way to success is to "choose one job, and stick with it for 40 years" is the type of advice that may have served some people 40 years ago, but today, such beliefs keep people trapped in a bubble that they need to have the courage to escape and find their authentic self.

More ideas about self confidence

Suggestions from professional counselors and psycholgists include:

• Empower yourself with knowledge
  
  Reading biographies and histories of successful people and finding out how others
  succeeded at a task, is a fantastic way to imagine yourself into success.
  
  

• Develop yourself physically
  
  You don't have to turn yourself into a bodybuilding icon that even Arnold Schwarzenegger would admire, but the plain fact is, the world reacts more positively to physically fit people. Eat better, sleep better, and exercise more and you are on your way towards self-confidence.
  
  

• Use Visualization
  
  Before he became famous, struggling comedian Jim Carrey use to stand in front of a mirror with a check he had written himself $10 million dollars. We're not suggesting that the actual visualization manifested the ten million dollars, but the inner confidence the act of visualization created moved outward into his daily life.
  
  

• Learn to Network
  
  Ask anyone who is successful, and the vast majority will admit they experienced tremendous help mentorship from countless others. If you can break out of your shell and reach out to others, you will be amazed at how this "mentored knowledge" turns into successful adventures.

Confidence is like a muscle. You have to exercise it constantly but at the same time, be absolutely authentic to where you are heading. If it's self-directed, chances are it's a positive thing. If it's primarily shaped by others, then you need to take a second look at yourself.