Confidence Hacks: 7 Ways to Instantly Boost Your Self-Esteem

Okay, I know what you're thinking. Confident hacks, really? Look, the word "hacks" has been so overused lately that it's practically meaningless. The problem is that people think that hacks  are things that are gonna give them instant results without them having to do any work at all.

First of all we should know the meaning of self-confidence

Fearlessness or self-confidence is a disposition about your aptitudes and capacities. It implies you acknowledge and confide in yourself and have a feeling of control in your life. You know your qualities and shortcoming great, and have a positive perspective on yourself. ... Feeling certain about yourself may rely upon the circumstance.

Confidence Hacks 7 Ways to Instantly Boost Your Self-Esteem

These confidence hacks are different because they do require some effort on your part. But each one is a highly targeted action that you can take to get an almost immediate boost to your mood and your self-esteem.

Without any further ado, here are seven ways you can legitimately increase your confidence when you need it most.

1.Get out of your head and into your body

 So one of the biggest enemies of confidence on a daily basis is your own mind--yes your own mind. So some people speculate that the human mind has up to 70 thousand thoughts per day. 

And because humans have evolved to be on constant alert for danger and threats to their survival, many of those thoughts are negative. The constant "what if?" What if I'm not good enough? What if I fail? Sometimes we get so caught up in our negative thoughts that we go down a rabbit hole.

 And if you've ever been stuck in a negative head space, you know that trying to think your way out of that is nearly impossible. And that's why the quickest way to actually change your mood and your confidence is actually by changing your physiology--by moving your body.

Not only does exercise distract you from your negative thoughts, but it's actually been proven to physiologically increase your sense of well-being by providing feel-good endorphins that help reduce anxiety and boost your confidence.

Even if you can't exercise, deliberately adjusting your posture can have an almost immediate impact on your mood. According to Harvard professor Amy Cuddy, just doing two minutes of these simple "power poses" like standing with your hands on your hips is enough to decrease cortisol (a stress hormone) and an increased testosterone. And the combination of that can make you feel more relaxed and more confident.

2.Harness the power of scent. 

Now, scent has a very powerful effect on us. Have you ever noticed how a single smell can transport you back to a very specific memory in a way that no other sense can really? And it shouldn't be a surprise that smelling better can increase our sense of feeling more put-together and well-groomed.
But a 2009 study actually showed that wearing fragrances can increase how confident we appear to other people. During the double-blind study, women were asked to watch videotapes of men who were either wearing cologne or not wearing cologne.

And surprisingly, the women were more attracted to the men who were wearing cologne, even though they couldn't smell them. So in a nutshell, when you smell good, you feel more confident, so you act more confident. And people notice. And that's why wearing cologne can often be that x-factor in our grooming routine that can take us from having a ho-hum day to feeling like we're on top of the world. I haven't worn a lot of cologne in the past and so I'm just starting to kind of dip my toe into the world of fragrance.

3.Do a small act of kindness for someone else

So another great way to boost your confidence is to just stop thinking about yourself and your own problems for just a second and focus on someone else for a change. We get so caught up in our own drama and baggage that sometimes we forget a very simple truth: we have the ability to make other people happy.

You'd be surprised, but knowing that you've actually brightened someone's day can often help neutralize all the petty concerns that you've had about your your own day. And guess what? Helping other people actually has a physiological effect that can boost your mood as well.

In the book The Healing Power of Doing Good, Allan Luks and Peggy Payne talk about how helping others can actually trigger what they call a "helpers high." Similar to the runner's high that athletes experience, helping other people can trigger a release of endorphins, and then after that initial rush you experience a longer period of calm and emotional well-being.
Go out and do something nice for a stranger. I mean you can go so far as volunteering at a local shelter for half a day.

And I've got to say that nothing puts your petty concerns in perspective like being around a bunch of people who don't have regular access to a warm meal or a warm bed. But it could also be as simple as just paying for a stranger's coffee in line at Starbucks.You're going to be surprised at how good you feel afterwards.

4. Take a calculated risk

Another thing that can skyrocket your confidence almost instantaneously is stepping outside of your comfort zone. We spent so much of our lives living in such a confined sphere: work, home, friends, family. And in that familiar environment, all of our self criticisms and problems seem much bigger and much more difficult to solve.

But we forget how invigorating can be to get a different perspective. Challenge ourselves. To take a risk. And I'm not talking about doing anything physically dangerous. I mean, there's plenty of social risks that could be just as scary. Single? Grow a pair and finally approach that girl you've been meaning to talk to. Ask your boss for a raise.

Try a new haircut. Take a class and learn a new skill. Attend a conference or plan a trip to a place where you don't know anyone else. So many of these things initially seem like risks but then once you actually work up the courage to take the leap, a huge weight is lifted off your shoulders. And you think to yourself, "I was afraid to do this?" The best thing, is even if you don't reach your intended target the first time, even if you fail, you still feel better about yourself because you had the cojones to put yourself out there and try.

And after a while, this sensation of wanting to look fear in the face and go for it really becomes addictive, because you feel this positive momentum in your life and it really gives you a lot of confidence.

5. Reconnect with play

So another thing that sometimes zaps our confidence is this constant drive to achieve more. Technology has made it so that we're always on when it comes to work, and the the rat race is more of a grind than ever.

We feel like we have to constantly push ourselves to work harder, to achieve more, but it's never quite enough. So maybe sometimes the solution isn't working harder, it's allowing ourselves to rediscover play. As Charlie Hoehn writes in Play it Away, sometimes the simple joy of reconnecting with play can do wonders for our confidence and our stress level.

No longer are we beating ourselves up for not pushing and achieving more, we're just simply allowing ourselves to be. Rather than trying to be productive, for once maybe you should just let yourself enjoy playing a game, doing a puzzle, shooting hoops, playing catch, being a kid again.

Charlie says "play is a state where we are truly ourselves once we let go of our egos and fear of looking stupid." Ironically, allowing yourself periods of play can actually increase your productivity.
So that release that comes with letting go of that stress for only a few hours perhaps, can help improve your focus, improve your creativity, improve your confidence and your satisfaction with work and the life in general.

6. Talk to yourself

Now, whether you realize it or not, you already talk to yourself all the time. The thing that we sometimes forget is that we have the power to decide whether that's positive or negative.
Think positive self-talk is too woo-woo for you? You know who else gets motivated by talking to themselves? Navy SEALs. Oh yeah, and Olympic athletes.

Even with their elite training and extreme levels of physical fitness, Navy SEALs and Olympic athletes have realized that psyching themselves up mentally and squashing negative self-talk is key for achieving peak performance. But it turns out there's a right way and a wrong way to talk to yourself. Personal development guru Gary John Bishop believes that positive affirmations don't work because we're trying to convince ourselves of something that we fundamentally don't believe. "I'm a killer on the dance floor.

Ladies can't resist my super sexy moves!" That's a great aspiration, but when you're trying to tell yourself that you've attained something that you actually haven't, that becomes a disconnect in your mind. So rather than use positive affirmations, Bishop recommends using positive assertions.

The difference is that assertions are things that you can legitimately summon on your own. And one of the big assertions that Bishop mentions is the phrase "I am willing." "I am willing to put in the work to be a good dancer. And I'm willing to get out there on the dance floor make a fool of myself to impress the ladies." Assertions work because they don't conflict with reality. You can make them true. And no one can take that away from you.
                    Also Read: Concentrate On Studies For Long Hours

7. Create an "awesome log."

Now, a final way to boost your confidence is just to remind yourself of past successes. Now, we all have little wins, I mean almost every day. The problem is that we forget about them. So at best we allow ourselves a few moments to kind of like bask in the afterglow. But then very quickly we're on to the next stress or next challenge.

It helps to sit down and try to think of all the times when you've had little wins and when things have gone well, etc. But it also helps to have a system to capture those things going forward. And that's why you should create an "awesome log" and use it to keep track of things like little personal wins, great compliments that you've received, small victories at work, meaningful conversations you don't want to forget, things that made you proud.

So, you could go analog with this, and simply just record this stuff in a notebook. you could have a little bit of fun with that make it a little more interactive by putting post-it notes in a mason jar. And that way you can sort of watch your awesome log grow right before your eyes. If you're having trouble thinking of past victories, ask for help.

Ask your friends or ask your co-workers. You know, a lot of times they'll be able to remember positive experiences that you've had that maybe you've forgotten about.

To built confidence at workplace

1.Shake hand firmly....
2.Build eye contact...
3.Don't look at your dress or touch your hair every time while talking.

By capturing those thoughts going forward you can refer back to your awesome log whenever you need a little pick-me-up, and you need to remember that, "oh yeah, that's right: I am awesome! And here are a few reasons why..." Alright, gentlemen. I hope you enjoyed the article. Now I want to hear from you guys: what other confidence hacks have you guys used to boost your confidence.
Thank you and take care!!!