We live in a society where lots of people compare themselves or feel the need to get approval from others, especially through social media. I think that it is so important to embrace who YOU are as an individual! I am writing this article because I want to help people who struggle with their insecurities because struggling with insecurities NEVER made me feel good or happy with myself. Now that I have more confidence, I want to help others have confidence. Not to be prideful, but to have confidence and be humble! These are ways that my confidence has boosted and how my mindset has changed overall!
1. Stop comparing yourself to others
One way that I have learned to boost my confidence is to stop comparing myself to others. When I used to compare myself to others, it would make me feel upset and insecure about myself. I used to compare myself through friendships, looks, dating vs single life, body type, etc. It seems that I have compared myself to someone else in every aspect of my life at least once. Once I stopped comparing myself to others, I started to become so happy with who I am as an individual. I am happy with where I am in life, but also SO willing to grow in every aspect of my life.
I think that it's great to have others inspire you for what you want to do in life or for who you want to become, but being inspired by someone is different than constantly comparing yourself to them. We can support and encourage our friends, family, and others who inspire us instead of comparing ourselves to them. In addition, it is important to not compare your journey of life to anyone else's journey because we are all different and we all experience different things at different moments rather we like it or not. Instead of constantly comparing, let's embrace each other's differences and embrace what makes us different and beautiful.
2. Do what makes YOU happy
I think that doing what makes YOU happy goes hand-in-hand with not comparing yourself to others. I honestly felt that I used to do certain things for other people's approval. I used to straighten my naturally curly hair all of the time because I felt that straight hair was the beauty standard. I also used to feel that I had to dress a certain way that I was not very fond of just to get the approval of others. I used to do a lot of things for me and what made me happy, but when it came to my looks, I wanted to get other people's approval.
When I started to do things for me and what made me happy in every aspect of my life, my confidence definitely went up. I felt more secure because I was being ME instead of being someone else. Trust me, it's so much easier being completely YOU instead of being someone else. Also, I really think that people admire when someone else can just be themselves because it makes them more genuine. The best compliments that I have ever received or felt the best about have never been about my looks, but rather about who I am as a person and how I like to be genuine and original.
3. Surround yourself with genuine friends
Personally, I think that it is very important to want to improve things in your life or your personal traits that you deal with that you want to work on, but I also think that it is very important to have the right people surrounding you who want to help you grow. I feel that I have been blessed with genuine friends who want to help me be me instead of doing and saying things to tear me or my confidence down.
When I graduated high school a couple of months ago, I had to really think about my friends and how and if they were helping me grow. I had to tell myself that it is okay to not be "best friends" with certain people if they weren't helping me grow and if I wasn't helping them grow. I felt that some of my friends did not have the same intentions as me and for what I wanted to do in life, so I decided to back away from certain friendships. Also, friendships should not have to be forced. You should want to have friends that can be honest and supportive of you and in return, you will want to be honest and supportive of them too.