Where does confidence come from? Confidence is a tricky trait to nail on the head – you never want so much of it that you appear cocky (and as a woman you’re more likely to be labelled over-confident needlessly), but you also need enough of it that you feel content and secure. 

But what is confidence? Is confidence an emotion? Where does it come from, and how can you find it? 

Let’s investigate…

Confidence Comes From… Wellbeing

As women, we’re almost programmed to focus on others’ needs before our own. Fill our time with jobs and errands and a constant ‘to do’ list of tasks. This can be conducive to getting a lot done, sure, but it’s not always the best thing for your mental wellbeing. 

Wellbeing has become a bit of a buzz word, particularly on social media, but in reality it just means a state of comfort and contentment. 

In order to maintain a happy, healthy brain and body you need to take some time for yourself. 

This doesn’t necessarily mean sipping something sparkly in a bath full of potions and meditating, but also sometimes just sitting down and taking a few breaths. If you need to, asking for help. If you need to, taking a break. 

Downtime is super productive too – it’s work on yourself.

Confidence Comes From… Acceptance

One of the characteristics of a confident woman is perhaps one of the most difficult to learn but it is a learned behaviour. 

It’s self-acceptance. 

If you know yourself and understand your strengths and weaknesses, you’re able to accept your highlights and your flaws. You can accept your flaws and still work on them, but you need to forgive yourself. 

You’re you and you don’t need to dilute or change that – unless, of course, you want to. Accept who you are and do what you can, with what you have, where you are. 

Confidence Comes From… Belief

Strong women, strong world!

Life can be tough out there, and without some belief (and maybe even a little blind faith) in your abilities, strengths and potential, it can be near impossible to navigate. 

Know yourself and believe in what you can achieve. In most cases, belief can be the catalyst for you taking action or starting something new. 

If you find that you struggle to believe you can do something or achieve something, break down the big task into small steps. 

Fan of a to-do list? Make one like a brick road, with each small item adding up to reach the end goal (your emerald city). Once you’ve finished, look back at all you’ve achieved – you said you would and you did! 

It’s also worth mentioning that there’s mindfulness to be had from failure, too. 

Even if something doesn’t work out as planned or doesn’t happen the way you wanted, providing you can learn from it, it’s not a total failure – because you’re taking something from it (even if that something is ‘I’m never doing that again!’).

Confidence Comes From… Learning

This point is often considered ‘for women’s eyes only’, but actually, men could do with adopting it too! 

As long as you remain open-minded and take on the approach of constantly learning and developing as a person, you can remain confident – because there’s no ‘wrong’ way of doing anything if it can be seen as an experience and learning to do better. 

This too plays into acceptance. Accepting that you’re never going to be perfect, you can always learn more, but that you’re confident you’re moving in the right direction, even if you’re not quite where you’d like to be yet.

Confidence can be learned, but like anything, you need to work on it consciously. 

Even reading an article like this is a positive, tangible step to becoming the woman you want to be. And please know…. I’m proud of you. 

I’m proud of you for taking this first action.

I’m so proud of the woman you are and I’m proud of the woman you’re going to be. 

You’ve got this… and it’s time to get on with it!

Here is another great article that you would like to read. 7 killer confidence tips that will change your life!

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