Confidence Boosters

Mary Chapin Carpenter has a line in one of her songs that goes, “Sometimes you’re the windshield; sometimes you’re the bug.” When I’ve suddenly lost my confidence, I feel more like the bug, than the windshield.

At these times, it’s so easy to replay the situation over and over again, hoping for a different ending. This usually only makes me feel worse. What I really need is something to remind me that being the “bug” is a temporary state. I don’t think I’m alone here. All of us need confidence boosters at some time in our lives. Here are a few ideas that might help:

Remember a Time When You Were Confident - Write down a past experience that gave confidence. Think about why this experience made you feel more confident. Who was involved? What happened? What did you do? Be as detailed about this experience as you can so that it is vivid in your mind. Refer to this experience to remind you that you have been confident before and will be again!

Make a Success Album – Use a 3×5 card to write down things you’ve been successful at in the past. In this case, success is anything you’ve done that’s made you proud of yourself. It may be cleaning out your closets or bringing in a big account for work. Put the cards in a photo album. When your confidence is low, read the cards in your album to remind you that you’ve been successful in the past.

Let Your Answering Machine Pickup Your Confidence - Ask friends to leave messages on your answering machine about your strengths, talents and what makes you special to them. When things aren’t going well, listen to these comments to remind you that there are people who believe you are talented and very special.

These ideas have definitely empowered me when I didn’t feel confident. They’re simple to do and I believe useful to anyone who experiences a sudden loss of confidence. I guarantee they’ll help remind you to be the windshield and not the bug!

Tagged as: building self confidence, confidence, how to build confidence