Do you want to know my number one tip to increase your confidence?
It’s surprisingly simple and might be easy to dismiss at first.
But I’ve found that over time, this simple practice can be extremely powerful.
Ready for the big reveal?
Here it is: my top confidence building tip is journaling every day.
Now, this isn’t just any form of journaling. We’re not talking about just scribbling some thoughts on paper and calling it a day.
This is intentional journaling that impacts your thinking by focusing your attention on specific thoughts. By changing your thinking, you’ll begin to feel differently and ultimately begin to show up differently in your life. It can be gradual at first, but little by little, you’ll find yourself growing bolder and more centered in yourself. And one day you’ll wake up amazed at just how much more confident you feel.
I’m going to break down this practice so you can start implementing it right away.
Steps for Using Journaling to Increase Your Confidence:
#1: Commit to a time and place for your journaling
This process is simple, but routine and commitment are key to your success when using it. Make your daily journaling process a ritual so you remember to do it. You should set aside time in the evening, when you can review the day. Find a notebook or electronic place to store your daily entries so they are easy to find and access going forward.
#2: Each day write down five things that went well (or even just okay that day)
This is the core of your practice. You don’t need to write a novel or pour out all of your thoughts in perfect prose. All you need to do is think about your day and write down five things that went well that day. If you can’t think of five things that went well, you can even just write things that went okay. Sometimes things that just went okay are the most powerful for me to remember because I tend to forget about them otherwise.
#3: At the end of each week review your list
This step actually isn’t even 100% required in order to see success. But it can be very affirming and helps to encourage you to keep up your dedication to your practice. In this step, at the end of the week, you’ll review all of your entries from the previous week. This helps to cement your positive memories and gives you a chance to appreciate all that you have accomplished.
That’s it!
Once you put these actions into place, the magic starts to happen. As you follow this process, your brain starts to create a strong mental memory of everything that is going well in your life. Instead of focusing on the negative and problems in your life, you’ll start to have a greater appreciation for all of the positive things.
And slowly this shift in focus starts to impact how you behave. When you recognize all the good work you are doing on a daily basis, you start to feel more proud of yourself and confident in your abilities. When you feel more confident in your abilities, you are willing to make more changes and risks. As they say, you miss 100% of the shots you don’t take, so by starting to take more chances you immediately increase the likelihood of achieving more success in your life. This becomes a virtuous cycle where you do good work, increase your confidence, create even more in your life, feel even better, and on and on.
What I really love about this journaling practice is that it does not require a lot of thought or conscious attention. All you need to do is follow the journaling process, and the rest of the process will start to fall in place. This is a great practice for busy folks who want to see a change in their lives but don’t have significant time to devote to new activities.
This practice is an adaptation of a Cognitive Behavioral Therapy exercise. There is substantial research showing the positive impacts of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy that explains why this simple process can have such a major impact. My recommendation is to try it for yourself so you can experience the impacts firsthand. It’s free and a small time investment, so it doesn’t hurt to give it a try!
Warning: the number one obstacle you will run into this is giving up before you feel the full effect. Trust me, I know that simple practices like this can be difficult to stick to. They seem too small to matter, too gimmicky to actually make an impact. If you start to think this, it’s a very normal reaction and doesn’t mean that you should stop. Commit to pushing through anyway, and give it a fair shot. I think you will be impressed with the results!
And there you have it. My confidence hack revealed. There’s no time like the present to get started and increase your confidence- let me know in the comments below- what are five things that went well in your life today?
Xo
Louisa