15 Steps For Building Self-Confidence In College
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All students do better in college when they have confidence in their abilities. When you are self-confident, you believe in yourself, are visible, take reasonable risks, easily make friends, voice your opinion, participate in activities and do your best work. These are all traits of the most successful people.



If you would like to build greater self-confidence, adopt this approach:



1. Decide What You Want To Do or Accomplish - To get started, pick one or two things that are important to you. When you focus only on a few things, your chances for success will increase.



2. Increase Your Effort, Determination and Persistence - To achieve anything difficult, it must be important to you. Hard work, determination and persistence are a large part of the price you must pay for success. As you increase your effort, determination and persistence, success and self-confidence will follow naturally.



3. Be Prepared - Exceptional preparation is required for any significant achievement. Professionals understand that anticipation, research, study, practice, support and determination are the ingredients of success. Successful people always do the hard work before they need it. When you are unprepared for what you know is coming, you are setting yourself up for failure.



4. Begin To Demonstrate New Behaviors - Do the things that will make you the person you want to be. Say yes to a few things when you would normally say no. That will help you begin to behave your way to greater self-confidence. Your appearance, words, optimism, behaviors, body language, activities and results all give you opportunities to demonstrate self-confidence. By making small changes and improvements, you will find the courage to set yourself on a path to greater success.



5. Find Out What the Most Successful People Do - Look for people who are successful within your area(s) of concern. Learn from them. As appropriate, adopt some of their actions and approaches, so you can be more successful too.



6. Identify New People and New Relationships - Find two or three positive, supportive, and friendly people who will enable you see the possibilities, not just the problems. You need people who will have your best interests at heart, people you can talk with about anything. Then, make a point of reducing and eliminating your contact with the negative and overly critical people in your circle of friends. They are the ones who tear you down and make you look bad, in order to make themselves look good. You don?t need them.



7. Practice Continuous Learning Within Your Area(s) of Interest - Information is power. Read, talk to others and do some research. You must learn everything you can about the areas which you are trying to improve. The more you know the better decisions you will make. Ignorance is never a good decision making tool.



8. Change Your Attitude and Your Approach - Be and stay positive and friendly. Improve the way you think, act and talk. Your attitude and your actions tell others who you are. Find people and activities that make you happy, smile and laugh. When you are with people you enjoy being around and doing things that make you happy, your world will be brighter.



9. Recognize Your Strengths - We all have things that we do well and come easily to us. Because of that, we enjoy doing them. That is why you should spend most of your time finding and doing the things that utilize your strengths. When you choose activities that you like and do well, good feelings and good results will predominate.



10. Modify Your Classroom Behavior - Behave like you are in the top 20% of the class. Sit in the front, read the material, study hard, come prepared, participate and ask questions. Show a genuine interest and curiosity in the subject matter and the Professor.



11. Pay Attention to Your Appearance - Dress and groom yourself for success. They are usually the first things others notice. When you are clean cut and well dressed, you will stand out in a positive way. Show others that you know what you want and where you are going. Monitor your tone of voice, posture, facial expressions, eye contact and body language. Everyone makes assumptions about others, based on the way they look. For others to see you differently, you must look differently.



12. Take Small Steps Slowly - To boost your confidence, break things down into small steps. That should enable you to accumulate a series of small successes. As you realize that you can succeed, your self-confidence will improve.



13. Gradually Stretch and Test your Wings - Build on your strengths. With a few small wins, you will find that you are more willing to take a few reasonable risks. You can accept responsibility for getting something done for others, take the lead on a group project or join a club or organization in your area of interest. Whatever you do, it is those small risks and subsequent successes that will help you see and believe in your capabilities.



14. Strive For Health and Fitness - When you are healthy and fit, you are more likely to feel self-confident. Pay attention to your daily routines, your food food intake, your sleep habits and physical activity. When done properly, they can boost your energy and reduce your stress levels.



15. Figure Out What You Won't Accept - As you gain confidence, you will find that others value your opinions, trust you and rely on you. Therefore, it is important for you to figure out what you stand for and what you will not stand for. That is important. No longer will you accept your negative self-talk, mediocre performance, unfounded fears, the constant put downs and criticism from others. You are becoming a different person, a self-confident person.



You can change. However, you must start believing that you can change and take responsibility for making those changes. By gradually adopting the fifteen steps explained above, positive change is more than possible. It is likely.