Create More Confidence in Yourself

How do you create more confidence in yourself? When you see it, you can sometimes believe it. Imagery and visualization have been proven to be effective forms of transforming your thoughts. When we think negatively, the outcome is often grim. When we think, feel, and begin to believe more positively, good things and feelings occur. Having confidence in yourself and creating powerful images of yourself in situations, acting self-assured, can help you meet your goals in life and build self-esteem.

Visualization: Picturing A More Confident You

Actor, Jim Carrey, visualized and believed in his success. Before hitting it big in Hollywood, he wrote a check to himself in 1987 for 10 million dollars. He dated it 'Thanksgiving 1995' and added the notation, “for acting services rendered.” He visualized it for years and, in 1994, he received $10M for his role in Dumb and Dumber.

The Power of Positive Thinking

Athletes use positive thinking and visualization all the time, in fact it’s a huge part of sports psychology. Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods have been said to practice visualization before competing, and the same goes with many Olympic athletes.

By creating a schema or story of your desired feelings and outcomes, then visualizing it over and over again with all of the senses, it activates your subconscious. The reason visual imagery works lies in the fact that when you imagine yourself performing or doing what you want, you are physiologically creating patterns in your brain, just as if you had physical performed the action or had the feeling in the moment. Visualization is intended to train our minds and create the neural patterns in our brain to teach our muscles to do exactly what we want them to do, and our brains to remember how we want to feel. Your Reticular Activating System (RAS) becomes reprogrammed and it activates your subconscious mind. When you are constantly focusing on the negative or visualizing the negative outcome, it is more likely to become your reality.

Visualize a More Confident You

Get clear on what you want. Make a list of the goals you have for yourself. For this client, she wants a career in finance, a boss who appreciates her and her colleagues who she learns from, an apartment that is close to her office, to feel secure with herself, a good relationship with her parents, a healthy relationship with a romantic partner, enough money to feel comfortable, and to take a vacation soon.

She thinks about each of these specifically and what it would feel like to have them. Although she may have not had colleagues who have been helpful in the past, she does know what it feels like to feel part of a team and reflects on her positive feelings about playing team sports in high school. Although she doesn’t know what it feels like to have no financial stress, she can reflect on feelings of what it could look like and when she has felt calm in the past.

Create images. Our brains can create limitless images¸ however it can be hard to access when you are thinking with little confidence.. Using your creativity to write about these goals, put them somewhere in your home, make a vision board, or even Pinterest board, can help turn the dreams of what you want and how you want to feel, into a reality. Make a vision board with all the feelings, things, and goals you want to achieve. Maybe you have a quote from an inspirational author or role model, your dream home, your dream vacation, pictures of what success looks like to you, as well as what a confident you could look like. Get really specific; even find words or traits you want to embody. Seeing this every day will make you more positive. More positive = more confident.

Use your senses. Visualize what a confident you would look like, and get very specific. Where are you? What are you wearing? What are you doing? What are the smells or textures? Who is there with you? What are you saying? Create a story and then write it down.

Use the power of your creativity to create a confident and more fulfilled you. Just see what could happen when you start thinking from a new, positive, perspective.

Take Good Care.

Emily is the author of Express Yourself: A Teen Girls Guide to Speaking Up and Being Who You Are.You can visit Emily’s Guidance Girl website. You can also find her on Facebook, Google+ and Twitter.