As we go through life, we self-coach ourselves to become better versions of ourselves and to help us achieve the life goals we dream of. One of the biggest things I’ve learnt over the years is that inner confidence is the key to it all. There is no better way to boost your inner confidence than to live in alignment with your personal core values.
There are all kinds of strategies, ways of thinking, patterns of behaviour and practical tips for improving your life and feeling better about yourself, but they’re all redundant if the foundation isn’t there. That foundation is the real you, the you that you know deep down you are. Yet, it takes confidence to peel back those onion layers and find your authentic self, to truly bring out who you are.
2 Ways to boost your inner confidence.
- Living authentically by uncovering your true self and living in alignment with your personal values.
- Stepping out of your comfort zone by exercising your confidence muscle.
1. Get to know and live by your core values.
Personal values are one of the most important things you can know about yourself, and they are vital to know and understand in getting genuine inner confidence. Your values are within you, right at the very core of who you are. Your core values are the foundations for you and the way you live your life.
A value is something in yourself, in others or in the world that’s most important to you, and could include things like beliefs, family, nature, personal achievement or freedom.
Why is it that some people and situations leave you feeling angry, frustrated, demotivated or deflated?
It’s because one or more of your values is being denied, suppressed, or repressed. When something upsets you and you are not aligned with your personal beliefs, you may experience unwanted negative emotions because of the pull away and denial of the foundations of you, your core beliefs.
On the other hand, there are those wonderful times when you’ve felt alive, amazing and so energised. Those are the times when one or more of your values are being honoured, and you can get more of that by living according to them.
This article of mindtools talks about confident behaviour and behaviour associated with low self-confidence. One example they give of confident behaviour is doing what you believe is right, even if others mock or criticize you for it versus governing your behaviour based on what others think. Understanding and honouring your personal values can increase your confidence.
Your values are all yours, and no matter what happens, no one can ever take them away. You can have absolute confidence in them because they’re there all the time just waiting for you to notice and use them. When you get to know your values, you can start to make choices and align your life and set life goals around them. Knowing your personal values and how they make you feel about your choices really helps with boosting your inner confidence, because you feel happy and amazing with the choices that you make. Take the steps to boost your inner confidence by becoming aligned with your core values.
Core Values List
- Acceptance
- Accountability
- Achievement
- Adventure
- Affection
- Agility
- Ambition
- Approachable
- Appreciation
- Authenticity
- Balance
- Belonging
- Brilliance
- Calm
- Clever
- Challenge
- Change
- Cheerful
- Comfort
- Compassion
- Community
- Commit
- Confidence
- Connections
- Contribution
- Creativity
- Culture
- Customer Focus
- Daring
- Dedication
- Dependability
- Determination
- Diversity
- Duty
- Effective
- Efficient
- Energy
- Enjoyment
- Enthusiasm
- Entrepreneurship
- Equality
- Ethical
- Expertise
- Exploration
- Faithfulness
- Family
- Fearless
- Flexibility
- Focus
- Freedom
- Friendly
- Fun
- Giving
- Gratitude
- Growth
- Guidance
- Happiness
- Health
- Helpful
- Honesty
- Hopeful
- Humble
- Humility
- Impactful
- Informal
- Individual
- Influence
- Innovative
- Inspiration
- Integrity
- Intimacy
- Joy
- Kindness
- Knowledge
- Leadership
- Listening
- Love
- Loyalty
- Meaning
- Mindful
- Motivation
- Mystery
- Nature
- Neat
- Open-minded
- Optimism
- Organization
- Originality
- Partnership
- Passion
- Patience
- Peace
- Personal development
- Personal growth
- Philanthropy
- Potential
- Power
- Practical
- Proactive
- Professionalism
- Profitability
- Pursuit
- Quality
- Real
- Recognition
- Relationships
- Relaxation
- Resourceful
- Respect
- Responsibility
- Security
- Self-awareness
- Self-control
- Self-reliance
- Service
- Skilfulness
- Spirituality
- Spontaneous
- Stability
- Strength
- Success
- Sustainability
- Synergy
- Teamwork
- Thankful
- Teaching
- Training
- Tranquil
- Travel
- Trust
- Understanding
- Unity
- Unique
- Universal
- Value
- Vital
- Warm
- Wealth
- Wisdom
- Work Life Balance
Download the worksheet to get the list of 140 core values and guidance on how to discover your core values.
2. Exercise your confidence muscle.
Confidence is a muscle, and like any muscle, you need to exercise it so that it doesn’t shrink and waste away. The more you exercise your confidence muscle the quicker you move towards your lifelong goals.
If you are the kind of person that does not take risks, the kind of person who plods through each day just doing what needs to get done, you are not growing, you are not stretching yourself.
I know it can be difficult, the self-talk, the scariness of situations and the belief in “I’m not good enough” or “I didn’t want it anyway”. I’ve been there and lived that way. I know the feeling of being stuck and self-doubting oneself.
Stepping out of your comfort zone is one way to boost your inner confidence. A person who lives within a comfort zone becomes less confident because the less you exercise your confidence muscle the less confident you become. Create powerful habits to step through self-doubt and grow in confidence.
“Believe in yourself! Have faith in your abilities! Without a humble but reasonable confidence in your own powers you cannot be successful or happy.”
Norman Vincent Peale
To work your confidence muscle, you need to be prepared to take risks and big willing to try something new or try something in a slightly different way. You need to open yourself up to the possibilities around you and push yourself to increase what you know, what you do and who you are. Is it not amazing that the more you try, the more you succeed? As you step out of your comfort zone to learn new skills you will discover new opportunities and you will grow in confidence.
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