When you are faced with a big decision, do you trust yourself to make the right choice? Or are you constantly doubting your ability to lead yourself on the right path?
Having trust in yourself is an important part in achieving success in life—because you can’t expect to be able to propel yourself forward if you can’t make any changes to your life with utmost confidence!
Being able to trust and rely on yourself is a critical aspect of life, and if you find that this critical ability is missing from your life, then it may be time to embark on the 30-day challenge to build up your self-trust.
30 Day Challenge To Build Your Self Trust
Day 1: Don’t Let Yourself Think Negative Thoughts
One of the main reasons that you don’t trust yourself when it comes to making a decision is probably because you don’t think very highly of yourself. This is usually cause by a low self-esteem.
Therefore if you want to increase your self-trust, you must first start by increasing self-esteem. Do this by no longer allowing yourself to think negative thoughts about yourself.
Every time a negative thought pops up in your mind, tell yourself that you aren’t going down that path. You can also think of positive thoughts to think that will counteract the negative ones when they pop up.
For example, next time you think “I’m so bad at making decisions, I can’t do this” Think instead, “I am an adult and capable of making my own decisions.” This will take time to get in the habit of, which is why you need to start on this on day one.
Day 2: Treat Yourself as Important
For a reason that no one can explain, people often times treat their friends better than they do themselves. And this can lead to a lack of self-care (or a neglect in it) that causes a drop in self-esteem. If you want to build your self-esteem, and learn to build trust, you need to think of yourself as important.
Start by pampering yourself. Need a spa day to relax? Book one! Need a break from social media? Take one! Whatever you may need, put your own needs first! And be sure that you continue to do so from this point forwards.
Day 3: Face Your Fears
Another reason that you may not trust yourself is because you let your fears hold you back from doing so. What are you afraid of? It’s time to voice your fears. This is because voicing them allows your mind to begin to work through them, and lets you know what you need to focus on.
One day 3, take the time to write down all your fears, no matter what they may be. Then write down possible ideas for overcoming said fears right next to them. This will go a long way towards helping you conquer them!
Day 4: Accept Your Flaws
Everyone has flaws, no matter how perfect you may think you are! And knowing you have flaws, and not accepting that this is normal can really hold you back from trusting yourself. The best way to deal with flaws is to recognize the part they play in your life, as this can really help you on the road to accepting them.
For example, if your flaw is that you often act before you think, think of all the times that this has worked for you to get out of a sticky situation, or how this helps you to react quickly when someone is injured or hurt. This doesn’t mean you won’t work on your flaws later, but you need to at least acknowledge them instead of lying to yourself about them.
Day 5: Set Goals For Yourself
Trusting in yourself is something that naturally comes as you work towards a goal and work on building your life. But you can’t work towards a goal you haven’t established or a future life you haven’t planned, so start here. Sit down with your journal, envision where you want to go and the goals it will take you to get there.
If your goals seem difficult, then break them down into smaller pieces with smaller deadlines. This way you will feel a sense of achievement even as you take small steps in your everyday life. This will boost your self-esteem and ultimately your trust in yourself.
Day 6: Make To-Do Lists
How do you feel when it comes to staying on task? Can you trust yourself to stay on task? If not, this is okay, as this is something you will work on today and for the rest of the thirty-day challenge.
If you don’t start your morning by making a to-do list, or better yet, making one the night before, then it’s time to start. Your to-do list can be as specific or vague as you want it to be, but it needs to contain all the times you are expected to do during the day and when.
And don’t forget, making the to-do list isn’t enough, you actually need to work on your day following the list that you have made. This may take a little getting used to, but you will be shocked at how much you are able to accomplish with something as simple as a to do list.
Day 7: Start A New Habit
If you haven’t noticed, the focus of week one of the challenge was to change some of the items in your personal life that were holding you back from trusting yourself. Look back at your week and enjoy all the positive changes you’ve made in your life. Now it’s time to make a big one, it’s time to form a new habit.
You can either start from scratch and make a habit for something you have yet to accomplish, such as a morning routine, or you can replace a bad habit with a good one. For example, instead of your current habit of coming home from work and sitting on the couch till dinner, consider going to the gym instead.
Day 8: Do Something That Scares You
When you are looking to build trust in your life, something that will really give you a boost is doing something that scares you. This is because when you see that you have lived through something that your mind previously thought as too scary, this will leave you trusting yourself to handle other scary things that may come your way.
This could be a good time to address fears that you brought up on day 3 of the challenge, or this is a great opportunity to do something simple that scares you, like talking to a stranger in the supermarket.
Day 9: Declutter Your Space
Clutter has many negative connotations on your life. And if you can’t trust yourself to keep your space clean and organized, how can you trust yourself to handle the larger things that may come your way? Spend some quality time decluttering and organizing your space. And from this point forward, you should work to maintain your space to this level of cleanliness.
Day 10: Write 3 Affirmations And Say Them To Yourself
Now that you are one third of the way through the challenge, you should see major changes happening in your life. Maybe you already trust yourself to make decisions 10x more than you did before! But there is still lots of work to go. On Day 10 you get an easy day, as today you will write down 3 positive affirmations and say them out loud to yourself.
But don’t throw them away! After you say them to yourself, keep them and repeat them to yourself whenever you need a positive pick me up, or when you feel your trust in yourself starting to slip.
Day 11: Solve A Problem In Your Life
No one’s life is problem free. And for Day 11, it’s time to solve one of the problems that exist in your life. This will be unique to you, but a problem can be anything in your life that you feel is going wrong. Your problem could be as big as that you are in bad relationship that you need to end, or a simple as that you always forget to bring lunch to work.
Today, you are going to find a solution to solve this problem so that it no longer affects your life. For example, if you can never seem to remember your lunch, maybe it’s time to take a note to the door that you will see when you walk out, or maybe even to the steering wheel of your car. No matter what your problem is, you will trust yourself so much more once you realize how you were able to overcome it.
Day 12: List The Things You Love About Yourself
Everyone has good qualities. And now that you have acknowledged your weaknesses and solved a problem that existed in your life, it’s time to recognize all the great things about yourself. Today you should spend a few minutes listing the things you love about yourself. Don’t be surprised when the list is long and takes more than one page!
Day 13: Learn to Say No
Another main culprit of why people don’t trust themselves is because they know that they can’t say no when someone asks them to do something. It’s time to put a stop to this and learn how to say no.
If an opportunity today presents itself to practice this skill, go for it. Otherwise you can just practice saying no to common requests that you get (and hate) in the mirror before you head to work.
Day 14: Start An Exercise Routine
Most people know that exercising regularly is good for you. After all, it releases stress, good endorphins, and can help you to get into shape! But exercise is also essential for building self-trust as it can help to show you that your body really is an amazing vessel capable of amazing things! And a continued exercise routine can do a long way towards maintaining trust in yourself.
This doesn’t have to be anything crazy; it could be as simple as replacing your after-dinner show with a walk around the block each evening. Whatever it is you develop, be sure it is sustainable with your lifestyle and can continue to serve you for years to come.
Day 15: Practice Gratitude
You’ve reached the halfway mark, yay! And now it’s time to sit down with your journal and write down all the things you are thankful for in your life. This can be physical items, people, or even mental attributes that you enjoy. Don’t be surprised if this list gets to be long as well!
Day 16: Make A Change to Your Physical Environment
When people don’t trust themselves, it’s often because they feel they are ineffective in their own life, and it’s time to change that. An easy way to feel more effective in your life can be accomplished by making a change to your physical surroundings as much as you are able to.
If you are able to make a big change, like moving where you live, or changing the furniture in your home, go for it. But for those without large options even just getting a candle or a new plant will do.
Day 17: Quit Social Media
Whether you realize it or not, social media plays a huge part in inducing self-doubt. And when you are filled with self-doubt, you will never be able to build self-trust. So today’s the day, delete those social media apps of your phone. Or at least deactivate them. If you are at a loss with what to do for your time, consider extending, or expanding on your exercise routine that you made a couple days ago.
Day 18: Do Something Nice For Someone Else
Something that you may not realize helps with building self-trust, is doing something nice for someone else. This is because humans are hard-wired to feel good when they help other humans.
There are many theories as to why this is, but it probably goes back to when humans lived in nomadic groups. Either way, today make your best effort to do something nice for someone else, whether it’s buying a random stranger a coffee, or helping someone get their groceries into their car.
Day 19: Forgive Yourself of Any Mistakes You Have Made
Everyone makes mistakes at some point in their life, it’s part of living. But you need to learn to forgive yourself for those mistake and leave them where they belong, in the past. You may not notice, but your mistakes really can weigh you down as you try to build self-trust!
This is because past mistakes have a huge impact on self-trust. Just because you made one bad decision in the past doesn’t mean you will consider to make bad choices in the future, after all, your life is different now, and you are different now. Remember this, and let those past mistakes go.
Day 20: Start Eating Healthy
You are now two thirds through the thirty-day challenge, and hopefully you are feeling great. If you are not, then there is still one major aspect of your life that needs to be addressed, and that is your diet. Whether you like it or not, what you put in your body has a huge effect on how you look and feel. This means you need to feed your body healthy food.
Go through your house and get rid of the junk food that tempts you. Stop drinking soda, cut back on eating out. Head to your local grocery store, and resolve to try a new recipe that you found online—whatever it takes to have you eating healthy!
Day 21: Get Yourself a Small Gift
If you’ve made it this far, you are doing great, this is why it is time to get yourself a small gift. This doesn’t mean that you actually have to buy something, it could simply mean taking it a bit easier on your workout today, or maybe downloading a new game for your phone that you will enjoy. Whatever it is, enjoy it, because you’ve earned it.
Day 22: Make Yourself an Awesome Playlist
Do you have a list of songs that simply embody your life and journey? Spend today putting them in a playlist that you can list to whenever you need a pick me up. This way, if you are every faced with something that has you doubting yourself in the future, you can pull out this playlist and remind yourself what an amazing person you truly are.
Day 23: Read a Motivational Book
Okay, so it is highly unlikely that you will get through an entire book in one day, and that is to be expected, just make sure that you start one today, and make an effort to read from it every day from now on.
Motivational books can really inspire you and help you to think about parts of your life more deeply than before. You should resolve to continue reading motivational books even after the challenge ends.
Day 24: Purge Negative Media
That being said, it’s also time to purge your life of the negative media that may still be in it. By this time social media should be a distant memory, but maybe you are still watching toxic news shows, or listening to distasteful media on the way to work. Stop any and all of these habits and resolve to only consume positive media instead.
Don’t be afraid to listen to the playlist you made a few days ago, or start bringing your motivational book on your commute, that’s what these items are there for, to replace the negative media that may be taking over your life and causing you to doubt yourself.
Day 25: Check Back In On Your Goals
Remember those goals you made earlier on in the challenge? It’s time to check back in with them. How are they going? Are you still on the right path? If you are struggling to achieve one or more of your goals then it may be time to re-evaluate why this is. Are there changes you can make? Write all of these ideas down in a brainstorm and keep them with your goals.
Day 26: Spend Time With Yourself
In order to build trust in yourself, you need to know yourself. And you can only do this by spending time with yourself. So if you don’t currently spend much time alone, today is the time to start. Take yourself out for lunch or dinner, or go on a solo hike. Chances are you will enjoy it and learn a lot about yourself.
But this needs to go far beyond just today. After you have enjoyed your alone time, make it a goal to have frequent time to yourself. This should be on a weekly, or at least a bi-weekly basis. And it can be for as long as a weekend, or for as little as couple hours.
Day 27: Build On Your Strengths
By this point in the challenge, you have learned what your weaknesses are, but also your strengths. Today you need to sit down and make a list of your strengths, as well as brainstorm a way that you can build on them to become all that you are meant to be in life!
You should also resolve to spend as much time as possible doing things that are within your strengths, as this will help you to continue to build trust in yourself.
Day 28: Take a Break
You’ve accomplished a lot in the last four weeks. And one of the biggest things about building trust in yourself is that it will take time. So recognize that today, and take a break without having to do anything specific.
Day 29: Learn to Meditate
Just as spending time alone is critical to learning to trust yourself, so too is meditation. This gives you time to think about your day, decompress, and really get to know what you want in life. If you don’t know how to meditate, don’t worry as anyone can learn. You should aim to meditate for at least 5-10 minutes each day.
If you developed a morning routine previously, this is a great place to add meditation into your life. Or you can put it in with your workout schedule, whatever works best for you!
Day 30: Be Decisive
Well you’ve made it to the end of the 30-day challenge. By now you should trust yourself more than you did before, even if you still have a little ways to go. And therefore it is time to be decisive about something today.
Do you have a decision you were still considering? Or maybe something you’ve been thinking about changing. Decide on it today. You’ve got the power, and the trust in yourself to make the right decision happy.
Besides just gaining a new trust in yourself, if you completed the entire challenge, you likely have a new outlook on life and have become a whole new person! No matter how this challenge affected your life, give yourself a pat on the back, because it wasn’t easy!
