A New Twist On An Old Tradition To Maximize The New Season

Another season has arrived and time to review, regroup and reflect on the past one. Often this is a time to rededicate ourselves to making positive improvements. Many people look to improve on diet and exercise. These are necessary for our health and vitality; however, here is a new twist if you are tired of this old tradition.

If you are looking for something different this time, try looking to improve in an area of your Self-Confidence. It may sound strange but when it comes to Self-Confidence, we all have an area in our life that we feel we are less than where we want to be.

Others can see our level of confidence in those areas by the way we walk, the words we used and our attitude. Some have strong confidence in their work, but feel unsure in their social life. It's different for each one of us. Discover the area you are lacking in confidence. You probably already have one in mind. Once you have an area figured it out, here are five tips that if you commit to will boost your confidence.

1. Like Yourself- Everyone has his or her own strengths, abilities and skills. These make you unique and one of a kind. They are an asset to cherish and strengthen.


2. Get Active and Surround Yourself with Positive People- Surround yourself with people who have a positive outlook on life and see the glass as half full instead of half empty. Make new friends with the type of person you want to become. Incorporate their personalities and traits into yours.


3. Face Your Fears- Everyone has a fear of something. Determine what is holding you back and overcome the fear. There are many support groups, clubs and organizations to assist you.


4. Acknowledge that No Person is Perfect- You don't have to perform at your best in every facet of your life. This places too much pressure on yourself. When you don't perform well in one area, it may bring you down in other areas as well.


5. Change Your Physical Appearance and Words- Stand tall, don't slouch. Walk 20 percent faster. Say "Hello" to people when you walk past them. Never use words like, "I can't", "I won't", and "I'm not good at that." Replace them with "I can", I'm confident" and "I'll find a way."

If you incorporate just one or two of these in your life over the next few months, you will see big changes almost immediately. By making a few small changes like these, it will greatly improve confidence in all areas of life.

Henry Ford said, "Whether you think you can or you think you can't - you are right."

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How to Bring Yourself Out of a Negative Mindset

You might not realize it within yourself but you are probably holding on to more negativity that you care enough to admit to yourself. Think back to those days when you had some time for yourself and you just sat back to relax. Notice how quickly your mind fills up with negative thoughts and energy? Past hurts, feelings and issues do not go away when you "forget" about them, they stay locked away in your unconscious mind and resurface in subtle ways: sudden bouts of depression, fits of anger and waves of resentment.

A negative mindset prevents you from living a completely fulfilling life and saps away at time you could use to be more productive. Those who can say they've been through a lot usually have a tendency to cherish their hurts, holding on to them like a knife they would someday use for seeking justice from real and imagined oppressors. However, it never works in their favour as they just end up getting increasingly bitter and resentful. They're gripping the knife by the blade if only to never forget their need to be compensated.

If you feel like negativity has pervaded your mind and daily living, you can consider the following tips to bring yourself out of a negative mindset:

Stop holding on to destructive thoughts.

You can never forget the people who have done you wrong and how much you've suffered. Year in and year out, you replay scenes from incidents just like horror movies you're afraid to watch yet can't stop watching. You wish that things happened differently, you hope for revenge, you imagine hurting people back and the thoughts never seem to cease by themselves. Holding on to these thinking patterns only assures your own self-destruction and the demise of your life goals. Make a habit of cherishing the important and valuable things in your life. Count your blessings. Picture the progressive future rather than being chained to the habits of the past where you were merely young and naïve. If it helps, employ the services of a professional who can guide you through Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) techniques and change your thought patterns.

Don't stay in one place and keep yourself busy.

Just like a pool of stagnant water, negative thoughts can fill your mind if you don't keep it flowing and preoccupied. Find work that you're passionate about, immerse yourself in a hobby or simply go out and get some fresh air. You just need to be reminded that the world is an awesome and expansive place, greater than all the anxiety and problems that you feel at the present moment. You have so much to look forward to and you're just getting started with a happy and fulfilling life.

Be kind, especially to strangers.

If you're suffering from guilt because of bad decisions or if you just want to feel good about the world in general, it can be very affirming to offer something of yourself to people with no expectation of reward. Give a little money to a random beggar on the side walk. Teach kids at the orphanage. Talk to the elderly at the nursing home. Join a team of disaster volunteers. You'll reaffirm three things: you're still a good person, the world still holds kindness, and faith in humanity still persists despite all the problems in the world.

Find positive people to share your life with.

People assimilate the qualities of the peers they surround themselves with. This does not happen by conscious choice. Check your manner of speaking, moving and making decisions. How much of your behaviour can be traced to your family, friends or significant other? If you keep negative people around you for a while, your outlook in life inevitably becomes negative. Choose positive people you can spend time with, preferably on a daily basis. You don't even need to be clingy, you just have to develop a routine in which there are enough vibrant and kind people who care enough about you and the world to enjoy activities with. In time, you'll grow into the kind of positive person who can be a shining light to people who have made negativity the centre piece of their lives.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=J_Russell_Hart

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Understanding Self Confidence

Self confidence can be described as an appreciation of one's own self worth, or personal value and is a powerful human need that is essential for survival and normal, healthy development. It is classed as a behavioural trait or characteristic that arises from within a person, and concerns the various beliefs we have about ourselves, which can include a  judgement about our appearance, capabilities, emotions and behaviour. It occurs in conjunction with our thoughts, behaviours, feelings and actions, and affects every aspect of our lives, from our personal relationships and our careers to our interactions with others.

According to psychologist Abraham Maslow (1943) it plays an important role in his concept of the Hierarchy of Needs, and he describes it as one of the most basic of human motivations. He believed that people attain confidence from both their inner selves as well as from other people, and suggested that both these needs should be met in order for the person to grow and realize self actualization.

Our self confidence is an important tool that enables us to work through life's challenges and achieve the goals we have set ourselves. It also helps us to properly assert our needs, gives us the right to feel happy and worthy, and can lead to successful careers and fulfilling relationships. It can be shaped by factors that are both internal and external. The internal factors can encompass your own personal beliefs or ideas, whereas the external factors will be found in your environment and can include interactions with parents, teachers, the workplace and cultures.

Early external factors will undoubtedly be the family environment in which we grew up in, and although parents play an important role within this setting, we are not mere pawns to which we are shaped and formed by our surroundings; we also play an active role within it. Parents respond to us as individuals, and can either nurture self esteem by providing positive feedback and interactions, or they can stifle it with harsh criticism or disinterest.

In Attribution Theory, people attempt to explain the behaviour of others and ourselves as either being caused by internal or external factors. Typically when we try to explain our own behaviour we use external factors such as the environment or unseen forces, and when we explain the behaviour of others we use internal factors, such as personality traits. Carol Dweck believed that people who attributed internal factors to their own behaviour were more capable acting on the beliefs and achieving their goals.

Having a a positive sense of our abilities makes us feel happy within ourselves; we know what we are capable of, we experience the world as an open opportunity in which we have just as much right as the next person to try and achieve our goals. We are empowered and motivated and we feel right in taking pleasure and satisfaction in our achievements.

If you do not possess these capabilities however, you look to others for validation of your own self worth, and you do not see people in their own right, but as sources of approval or disapproval. You associate yourself, not with people that genuinely share your beliefs, interests and to which you can enjoy their company, but with those that you know will not condemn or ridicule you. The old saying of "If you do not love yourself, you will be unable to love others" is well known, but similarly, if you don't feel lovable then it is also very hard to believe that someone else could love you.

People who are self confident at work are more likely to surround themselves with capable colleagues, as they are not panicked at the thought of being undermined by people that are better than them. They are often more motivated to give their best, and be in control of achieving their own goals. Also, they do not feel the need to put others down in order to raise others perception of them

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