I have been asking a question for a long time: “how to be confident?”. My answer is: “practice makes perfect”. In this article, I have summed up few points that make me confident and I hope this article is helpful to you as well.
Stick to Several Healthy Habits
There are some habits that make me more confident. For example, do not drink soda but drink water and milk; do not eat fast food; read two English journals and news aloud every day.
Why these things are so important to confidence? When I first came to Singapore, I would drink 1–2 cola a day and eat MacDonald’s every week. I lost my voice after one semester, which made my presentation and singing unattractive. On the other hand, fast food caused great damage to my body and caused me indigestible. If you lose your voice and health, how can you feel confident? As for reading, if you can speak professional English in a non-English or non-standard English country, you can definitely leave a great impression to others. Besides, by speaking professional English, you would have a higher chance of success during fund raising and interviews.
However, the only secret here is whether you can adhere to your discipline or not. After a good progress, you can try something more challenging. For example, run 1 kilometer each day and start to read a book etc. You will see a qualitative change in your confidence after sticking it over time.
Be Aware of Your Impression (Impression = Appearance + Dressing + Personality)
Personally, I think appearance includes two parts, facial features and figure. Facial features are innate while figure is malleable. Good figure can make a difference to your appearance. Besides, proper dressing is crucial as well. When I stay at school, I am usually in vests and slippers. When it comes to speeches, T-shirt and jeans are my favorite. Lastly, temperament is most important. Appearance and dressing only contributes to the first impression while personality is the bridge for long-term relationships. Your behaviors can affect your social circle and make yourself feel confident.
Master Several Skills
The definition of “skill” here is “a non-genetic ability that cannot be acquired in short time and can be practically applied to work”. For instance, Singing is not a skill as everyone can sing. If others cannot sing as well as you, it would be counted as a skill. Meanwhile, programming languages do not count as skills if you cannot put them in practice. Instead, writing control systems and creating websites using programming languages are considered as skills.
Mastering one or more skills can make you indispensable and you can therefore find arenas to show your talents. Who won’t feel confident under spotlights?
Originally published at https://www.nianliblog.com.
