Photo by Jannis Lucas on Unsplash
The pandemic has left the world in a disarray. Things that were once considered certain no longer exist and people are finding it harder and harder to know where to turn for support.
Now more than ever people must take the time to work on themselves and create trust and confidence that they can handle any obstacle.
These 9 tips below can help guide you on your journey of self-discovery and growth.
Set reasonable goals
Most people spend their time dreaming big and setting grand and unrealistic goals. They don't achieve any of these but no-one is getting hurt so no harm no foul right?
Not exactly.
Every time you fail another lofty goal you quietly tell yourself that you're a failure. Over months and years, all these unfulfilled goals create a picture of yourself as someone who can't succeed at anything.
Start reversing that process by setting more realistic goals. Instead of saying you are going to drink 2 liters of water every day, say I will start with one glass.
The goal here isn't to change yourself overnight, but to change the trend of your goals. It is amazing how quickly wins start stacking up and soon you will be achieving much larger goals you never could before.
Knowing you can achieve big goals by working on smaller ones gives you confidence to achieve anything. If you put your energy towards it that is.
Spend time with yourself
It is difficult to trust someone if you don't know who they are.
The same goes for you.
It is crazy how people will go to any length to not spend time in isolation with themselves. You don't need to spend hours meditating or filling hundreds of books journaling.
Turn off your phone for half an hour and see where it takes you. You will be amazed how starved for attention your inner child is, and how happy it is to spend quality time with you.
Going down to the beach and building sandcastles, drawing pictures, or just watching ants.
Knowing you can t survive with just your mind and thrive too, gives you the confidence to go it alone most people lack.
Stick to your word
This is one that you will need to relearn again and again, as you go through the various stages of life.
Saying you will do things then not sticking with them causes a similar problem to setting too lofty goals.
You end up slowly building an inner dialogue that your word doesn't mean much and that it can't be trusted.
My grandmother used to say you are nothing but your word and she is right. If you can't trust your word then what can you trust.
Focus on sticking to your word no matter how difficult. It may mean learning to say no to a lot more commitments. But this is doubly beneficial as it gives more time to work on the things you have said yes to. Making it a lot easier to achieve them.
Learn what you like about yourself
Ask people what they like about their significant other or best friend and they can list 10 things just like that.
Ask someone to make a list of 10 things they like about themselves and they will struggle to fill 5.
People are not very kind to themselves and it creates a big disconnect between their minds and the rest of the world.
Spending time daily writing what you like about yourself until you can bang out a list of 100 things will help teach you to be your own best friend.
Knowing you have your own back is the definition of self-trust.
Build upon your strengths
It is common for people to focus on their weaknesses in an attempt to be better.
The problem with this method is that no-one is good at everything. Einstein said it best: "if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid."
Only focusing on your weaknesses will make you believe that you are worse than you are. Focusing on building your strengths may uncover a level of genius you never knew. It is more fun working on what you are good at too.
Be patient with yourself
"Rome wasn't built in a day," I know it is a cliche but that doesn't make it any less relevant.
Change, real body, and life-altering change takes time. Stop focusing on the results and instead put your energy into the process. Time will pass regardless.
Focusing on just results may make you discouraged and quit when things aren't happening as fast as you want.
When you focus on the process you learn how to make yourself more efficient. As a result, you may end up accelerating your progress anyway.
Forgive yourself
People carry a lot of baggage that holds them back from being fully happy in themselves.
The simple act of forgiving yourself for not being perfect has a profound effect on your self-trust.
Knowing that you are safe to try and fail and that you will dust yourself off after a failure can do wonders to your whole confidence as a person.
Photo by krakenimages on Unsplash
Track everything
Self-growth and discovery is a roller coaster ride with high highs and low lows. It can be difficult to figure out if you are progressing when things are so chaotic
Learn to keep track of every victory and setback, no matter how small.
It can be amazingly satisfying and motivating to look at your progress from an analytical point of view. Especially when things get tough to look at and you're not sure if you are progressing.
Speak the truth
This one can be a difficult one for people to accept about themselves.
It is difficult to build trust in yourself when you know what you are saying isn't true. Learning to speak and seek the truth can be one of the most powerful tools in your self-trust arsenal.
Knowing you strive for the truth will help you when you are under attack from others and will quiet the voices of doubt in your mind when things get tough.
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