9 Daily Habits To Grow Your Confidence Quickly

Something that I have been struggling with lately is a lack of confidence. I have been pretty consistent lately with making steps and progress towards my personal goals of: 

1. Having a successful blog
2. Writing
   • Both for my blog and potentially some short stories

I am lucky enough that I work in a strong community of creative individuals and recently joined a writing club with my colleagues–in hopes to motivate and inspire me. Finding creative outlets has been its own sort of hobby for me. Throughout my entire life I have memories of starting and stopping projects that are intriguing to me, but having a blog has been something on my mind for a very long time. 

Lately, I have been in a writing rut and a self-diagnosed case of imposter syndrome. The continuous thoughts like: 

“You’re not a writer”

“Why would anyone care what you think” 

“What do you have to offer anyone” 

And even worse lately… having been a huge consumer of all the blogs–”what evergreen product do I have to offer to keep people around” or “the content I have written doesn’t meet the standard word length that is recommended for blog posts”. 

So, I have been in a vicious cycle of self doubt and criticism. Since we know we are our own worst critics, my brain hasn’t been a healthy place for my self-confidence. And it resulted in me being paralyzed to do anything. 

I decided this month, I am also taking a tip from a very successful writer I know who said, no matter how much you think your writing sucks–finish it and put it out there for the world. 

Since confidence is a skill that you can train, like any muscle in your body can be stretched and strengthened, I have created a list of things I do/am currently doing to help build my confidence. 

The 9 habits I use to build confidence:

1. I make a list of tasks I know I can accomplish. This helps because I am able to feel that instant satisfaction of feeling productive throughout my day (I also call them small wins). When you think about it-we almost never celebrate the things we do accomplish. Actually taking time to celebrate what you have accomplished, is a huge help in building up confidence. Especially if you are in a rut-like I have been. I try to remind myself of the quote Rome wasn’t built in a day so neither will my confidence. 
2. I keep my biggest dreams and desires to myself, because I don’t want anyone to poo-poo the idea (i.e. colleagues, friends, etc.). 
3. To follow #2 I do write them down and have them hanging in my home office so that my husband and I see them everyday. We (while in the constraints of having two young children and two full time jobs) hold each other accountable to achieve our goals. 
4. Self reflection on all of the things I have done. It’s hard to remember what accomplishments we have already made when we are facing the tasks we want to accomplish. The little bit of courage and appreciation that can be offered by making a list of past accomplishments is a huge help. 
5. I have become more and more self-aware as the years go by. My husband and I recently had a weekend away where we were able to talk about our future goals and plans for our family, both independently and together as a team. This intentional time to zero in on what we want and how we can accomplish it, was pivotal in helping to build up confidence. I know what I want and I work everyday towards those goals. 
6. Balancing work and life. We have all heard about work life balance before so I won’t beat a dead horse here, but one off day will not derail your goals, desires, or the work you are putting in to build your self confidence. 
7. Exercising. I have been an athlete for the better part of my adult life. Recently, after the birth of my second child, exercise has fallen by the wayside. I have changed my whole approach to exercise since having my second and being consistent with my exercise–has been a tremendous help. And when I say exercise, I mean small wins of walking at least 1-2 miles a day. 
8. Spending quality alone time. I am a big fan and supporter of having alone time. Time where you can do the things you love, in order to recharge. For me, I love reading a new novel or book series or relaxing in a bathtub with some wine. 
9. Keep going. Everything you do in life takes practice. Whether you are trying to have better communication with a spouse, better quality time/moments with children, run a faster mile time, or cut your grocery budget in half–it all takes practice. When you practice your skill to gain confidence. You naturally put more time and effort into your skill- which in turn gives you a history of practice sessions. Those practice sessions can help remind you of what you are capable of. 

This is a daily work in progress for me. I haven’t ever changed anything about myself overnight–and I don’t expect to. My hope is to share what works for me, in hopes that it could work for someone else too. I would also love to hear from you, my readers. What accomplishments do you have that move you forward? Have you accomplished something you never thought was possible? Here is a link to 12 downloadable png Confidence Quotes.