Having strong confidence in yourself is vital to achieving your goals in life. When you believe that you can succeed, you are much more likely to reach your goals. If you need an injection of self-confidence and want to focus on building your self-esteem, we have a 30-day challenge that is perfect for you.
Below are 30 activities you can choose from over the coming month. When done regularly and consistently, these strategies will help boost your self-confidence and leave you feeling like you can conquer the world. Do not wait until the first of the month. Get started today!
Day 1 – Stop Thinking Negatively
To gain more confidence in yourself, you have to stop talking negatively in your head. You probably use negative self-talk more than you realize, and it is killing your confidence. Pay attention today (and for the coming month) to the negative voice that criticizes you. Each time you hear the voice, write down what it says.
At the end of each day, challenge each of these statements. Supply evidence to the positive that you are making progress in healthy and productive directions.
Prove that inner voice wrong. Doing this regularly for the next month will help tone down that voice and help you think more positively.
Day 2 – Focus Only on Greatness
There are things you do every single day that are less-than-great. You make poor food choices because it’s easier. You settle for watching TV because you had a long day. Time and again, you let mediocrity into your life, when you only deserve greatness.
Start today to make one better choice every day that removes these mediocre, “less-than” choices from your life and replace them with greatness.
Do something positive for yourself, and you’ll feel more confident because you will know that you are worth it.
Day 3- Change Your Clothes
Your clothes can play a significant role in how confident you feel. If you want to start feeling more self-assured today, dress the part. Visualize what a confident version of yourself looks like.
What is he or she wearing?
If you don’t currently own clothes that make you feel confident, go shopping. Looking confident can help you to feel confident, so focus on dressing the part for the rest of the month.
Day 4- Be Your Own Best Friend
You’ve been tracking your negative thoughts for several days now. You have told yourself a lot of bad stuff, for sure. Imagine that your best friend or partner told you these same things about themselves. How would you respond upon hearing someone you love talking so negatively about themselves?
- Tell yourself all the wonderful qualities that you see in yourself, just like a good friend would if they heard you talking to yourself this way.
Remind yourself of your accomplishments and traits and show yourself the love that you deserve. See the bigger picture of your life and recognize that this voice that has been plaguing you for days is weak and petulant, not worthy of your time.
Day 5- Work on Positive Affirmations
Words have power, and the more you repeat words, the more likely you are to believe them and internalize their truth. You’ve certainly been doing this for some time with that negative voice, right? It’s time to turn it around.
- Write down three to give positive affirmations you want to become truth. Affirmations are positive statements, written in the present tense, that reinforce beliefs or behaviors.
- Write each of your affirmations on a sticky note.
- Place them around your house in rooms you visit often. Every time you enter that room, read the note aloud and then to yourself to reinforce your affirmation’s positivity in your mind. Practice this daily for the rest of the month.
Day 6- Stand Up Straight
Your posture can play a vital role in how you feel about yourself. You have likely read about ways of standing that make people feel more powerful (think of the Superman pose). And it is true that how you carry your body will play a role in how confident you feel. Work on improving your posture.
- With your head high and shoulders back, you will feel more confident and full of purpose. When you start to slouch, you’ll notice your negativity creeping back in.
Day 7- Set a Daily Intention
- For the rest of the month, try this exercise first thing in the morning.
- Before you get up, set your intention for your day. These are not your daily goals or a list of things to do. An intention is a personal action that leads you closer to your ideal self.
An example of a daily intention is, “I intend to be open to new experiences today.” Or, you may like, “I intend to love myself, no matter what, today.”
Repeat your intention to yourself throughout the day, as you engage in your everyday work and routines.
Think of how you are using opportunities throughout your day to bring you closer to this intention. This will help you feel powerful and confident each day.
Day 8- Pamper Yourself
- Whether it’s getting a haircut, having a massage, or going for a manicure, do something today that makes you feel good about yourself.
When you feel at your best, you will be more confident about your abilities. When you look scruffy and unkempt, that influences how you feel, as well. Take some time today to do something to pamper yourself and continue to honor this need throughout the month.
Day 9- Help Someone Else
- If you want to feel good about yourself, you should start with treating others well.
When you help out a friend in need, give advice to someone in a fix, or volunteer to help the less fortunate, you gain confidence knowing that you are helping others.
Giving of yourself is a selfless act that still has positive benefits for you. Find small and significant ways to help others throughout the month.
Day 10- Confront Your Negative Emotions
- For the next several days, notice times in your day when negative feelings like guilt or fear pop into your head.
- Write down the triggering events and how you felt at the time. What negative emotions do you most often feel? What are the most common triggers?
Now, it is time to permit yourself to live your life without feeling these negative emotions. Pick one of your significant triggers and write yourself a permission slip. For example, if you feel guilty about focusing on yourself instead of spending all your time with your family, your permission slip might read, “I have permission to focus on building my self-confidence.”
- Place your permission slip where you will see it regularly. When you start to notice the negative feelings creeping in, refer back to it.
Remember why you are working on this personal goal. When you permit yourself to have these needs, the negative feelings start to subside as you gain confidence that you are worthy of the investment.
Day 11- Stop Trying To Be Perfect
Not everything you do has to be perfect. You do not have to be perfect. The need to be perfect can be a powerful force that is depleting your confidence, so learning to accept that perfection is impossible is necessary if you want to believe in yourself.
Look at all the people in your life you admire. Have any of them made mistakes? Do any of them have bad habits or things they would like to improve about themselves? Of course!!
- Start noting when you pressure yourself to be perfect, write it down each time it happens.
- After 1 week look at your list, and really consider if these perfection expectations are realistic
No one is perfect, including you. Let go of notions of perfection to gain more confidence that you are doing the absolute best you possibly can.
Day 12- Smile
Just like looking good and standing tall makes you feel more confident, so does smiling. Even when you are not happy, if you smile, your brain will actually be tricked into thinking you are happy.
When you smile more, not only will you feel more positive but also more confident. Smile more and notice how more people smile back, too. This helps boost your confidence, as well.
Day 13- Expand Your Comfort Zone
Staying within your comfort zone may feel satisfying, but it does not challenge you in any way. Doing something new and unusual allows you to experience more and expand your abilities, which can lead to more confidence.
- Push yourself to try something new each day for the rest of the month. Find fun and exciting ways to live life to its fullest and push your limits.
Day 14 – The Gratitude List
Learning to be grateful for what you have in life can help you appreciate what you have. When you practice regular gratitude, you feel more positive about your current life, which garners confidence. Learning to be more grateful boosts self-esteem and happiness, which makes you feel more self-assured, too.
- Make a list of all that you are grateful, include people and things in your life as well as things about yourself, like your character traits
- Continue to refer to your list often
Day 15- Have a Party!
Sharing in a celebration with friends and loved ones is a terrific way to boost your confidence. It does not need to be complicated or for any special occasion. Invite people over to play games, enjoy a bonfire, watch sports, or just to hang out.
Spending time with those you love fills you with happiness, makes you appreciate the abundance in your life, and helps you feel more confident.
Day 16- Embrace Your Flaws
Instead of spending so much time berating yourself for your flaws, learn to embrace the positive side of your biggest weaknesses. Each of these traits makes you unique and special, and without them, you would not be you.
- Write down five things you do not like about yourself, then turn these around and find ways to be thankful for these attributes.
For example, if you really hate how loudly you laugh, instead be thankful that you spread your happiness to so many others. Instead of cursing your quick temper, be grateful that you are so passionate about many things in life.
Learning to embrace all parts of yourself will help you feel more confident about your unique traits.
Day 17- Engage Socially
Build your confidence today by forcing yourself into more social interactions. Many people find social interactions to be very tricky but learning to interact more with strangers and acquaintances can help you feel more confident in this area.
- Today, start a conversation with at least three people you do not know. It does not have to be an intimate conversation, but breaking the ice is often the hardest part.
- Try this every day for the rest of the month to see how quickly your confidence grows.
Day 18- Focus on Self-Care
- Do something just for yourself.
You should find time every day to do things for yourself. Reading, singing, dancing, working out, writing in a journal, taking a hath, or just walking around your neighborhood are all essential activities that help you care for yourself.
Do not neglect your own needs. When you take care of yourself, you will feel more confident that you can handle whatever life throws your way.
Day 19- Be Open to Compliments
People likely give you compliments all the time that you either do not internalize or shrug off as not accurate.
- Listen today to how people talk to you, the way they acknowledge and praise your efforts or abilities, and work on accepting those positive thoughts rather than denying them.
Learning to receive compliments means you feel worthy of praise, which can make you feel more confident in your abilities.
Day 20- Make a Plan
With ten days to do in this challenge, it is time to set some goals.
Now that your confidence is building, what is something you want to do that you have never done before? What is an idea you would like to explore? What do you want to do with your newfound confidence at the end of this month?
- Start by creating a realistic goal for yourself and begin today to develop an action plan that will help you accomplish this goal.
- Starting to work on your plan and making incremental progress toward your goal will boost your confidence and help you feel like you are doing something you have long wanted to do.
Day 21- Do Something Scary
Build your confidence by confronting your fears.
- Name something that scares you, that pushes you beyond your zone of comfort, then go out and tackle it today.
- Build your confidence today by doing something new, different, or unusual to test your boundaries and confront your fears.
Day 22 – Take Yourself On A Date
When we meet new people, we spend time with them to learn more about them. This gives us confidence in our feelings toward them over time. It is time you did the same for yourself.
- Take yourself out today and spend time on your own.
Do things you enjoy doing, spend time thinking and reflecting on what you are learning about yourself, and ask yourself some tough question.
Getting to know more about yourself and the things you want in life will give you more confidence in your dreams and your abilities to make them come true.
Day 23- Increase Your Support System
- Examine the people in your life to see who is building your confidence and who is tearing it down.
- Today is about shedding yourself of negativity from people in your life. Think carefully about your relationships and which are not helping your efforts at building self-confidence.
Can you cut these people from your life? Or can you at least limit your exposure to them? Can you talk to them about your boundaries and how they make you feel?
Confronting toxic relationships can be scary but ultimately will leave you free to enjoy the people in your life who bring you joy.
Day 24- Find Something New to Learn
Learning something new increases your abilities and competence, which makes you feel more confident.
Learning something new each day helps you feel more capable of yourself, which naturally boosts your confidence.
- Take a class, read a book, watch some instructional videos, or practice a new skill today.
Day 25- Slow Your Speech
- People in authority speak with authority. They talk slowly and with confidence. Try this today.
- When speaking to others, slow down and consider your words before speaking. What you have to say with worthwhile, and people will want to hear it.
- Feel confident that your words are important and show this confidence by speaking at a slower rate to prove this to your listeners.
Day 26- Get Active
Regular exercise leads to many benefits that help you feel more confident. Exercise gives you more energy, which makes you more productive. It also helps you control your weight, which can make you feel better about your appearance.
Exercise enhances your mood, which also boosts your confidence. In short, there is no downside to this healthy choice.
- Get out there and get moving every day.
Day 27- Remind Yourself of Your Gifts
As the month is ending, it is time to look again at all your strengths. As you have tried out some new things and gotten to know yourself more this month, what are the many strengths, talents, and gifts you have come to know about yourself?
- Make a list of all your positive traits, the things you are good at doing, the people you have helped, and the accomplishments you have realized.
- Reminding yourself of these positive traits can help add to your growing confidence, especially as you see how much you have learned in just these few weeks.
Day 28- Stop Settling
It is time to examine the areas of your life where you are tolerating less-than what you deserve.
- What are you putting up with but not loving?
- Where are you making compromises that you do not like?
- Next, find ways to diminish, minimize, or remove these things from your life. You deserve happiness and joy, and you do not need to settle for less.
- Build your confidence by learning to place your needs first.
Day 29- Be More Deliberate
Moving forward, it is important that you live your life deliberately to continue to grow your confidence.
- Start by recognizing when you are living on auto-pilot and learn to switch it off.
- Start making deliberate decisions about the things that matter most to you.
- Look at areas of your life that are not working and are destroying your confidence and make a deliberate plan for how you will improve this in the next month.
Day 30- Reflect
We’ve reached the end of the month, and if you are still here, that means you have a lot to think about.
- Take some time today to reflect on all that you have done and learned in the last 30 days and plan for what you want to do next.
- What are your greatest lessons, and what do you want to continue to explore as you move forward?
- Where are there areas for continued growth in your life, and what changes have you made for the better that are working?
Reflection is an essential part of learning, so be sure you spend today reflecting on your one-month journey to great self-confidence.
