stardust, I found that just through life experience, in particular staying active, trying things out of my comfort zone, reading and socialising, helped my confidence increase alot, and gave me an all round 'life education' as it were, made me more outgoing and confident.
Here are a few things that I think once a person has done in life should definitely bolster their confidence:
- Going to a party and approaching people you don't know (especially someone good looking, it takes balls
)
- Going to a party all on your own ... and making friends
- Visiting a town or city, on your own
- Going jogging ... on your own
- Talking to random people at a bus station, train station, airport
... I guess my philosophy about confidence is mainly that it really depends on your knowledge:
e.g.
- if you KNOW the risk of walking around in a certain city is safe - you'll be more confident in walking around
- if you KNOW people at a party want to have a good time and will be welcoming - you'll be more confident in approaching, saying "hello" etc
- if you KNOW and can judge a trustworthy person to someone who isn't - you'll be more confident in dealing with them
So how does one learn to KNOW the above KNOWNS? Trial & error!
Confidence I think is an emotion we've evolved to make us aware of risks we face as humans:
- in being socially accepted
- in not harming ourselves/staying safe
- in not making radical decisions in like even
Everything in a balance though of course - too much confidence is a bad thing ... that will be for next week's post