How To Improve Your Confidence In One Easy Step

The Simple Tip With A Big Impact

I’ll confess: I struggle with my confidence. Perhaps you can relate.

As someone leading an organization with a large vision, being confident in the way I share our story and raise support is a crucial piece to my work. But after all these years, it’s still a daily battle.

I believe confidence is an important step toward professional success and emotional well-being. So how do you build more confidence? And how do you do it when your confidence levels are depleted?

Here’s a quick tip I just learned that I really like. Ready for it?

Fake confidence by making small talk with people who are paid to be nice to you.

That’s it? No, seriously – that’s it. Stay with me here.

Cashiers, deli workers, bank tellers, baristas, waiters, auto mechanics, and more. These people are paid to be nice to you. No matter what you say, they will smile, engage, laugh, banter, and go along with all your bad jokes.

People who are paid to be nice to you offer you a handful of incredible opportunities every day to practice being confident.

In fact, when you break out of your shell to small talk with a bank teller about how their day is going– a biochemical reaction takes place in your brain. With every social success, your body releases tiny amounts of endorphins, dopamine, and testosterone that help to reinforce confident behavior.

As crazy as it sounds, the more you practice being confident, the more it starts to filter into your real life.

I learned this tip from a marketing blogger named Derek Halpern. He goes into more detail on his post and video titled “How To Be Confident” which I recommend checking out.

So what do you think of this? Do you believe me? Give it a try and then in the comment section below, tell me how it went. You’ll see mine as the first comment.

- JZ

Photo Credit: Skistar Trysil, Creative Commons