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What is confidence and why does it matter
Confidence is a feeling of being capable, believing that your efforts will be well-received, and knowing you have what it takes to reach your goal.
If you’ve ever struggled with anxiety, you know how crippling it can be to lack confidence. You hold back from the things you want and feel exhausted by your obligations. Conversely, you may know people who seem overconfident, whose skills and expertise don’t match up with their sense of accomplishment and worth. Yet those people often experience a baffling amount of success.
Why does confidence matter? Because it makes life easier and stacks the odds in your favor. When you feel confident in yourself, you’re more likely to try new things and to keep persisting when you hit an obstacle. The more you try, the more likely you are to succeed.
In short, confidence helps you live a healthier, happier, more productive life. If you wish you had more confidence, I’ve got great news. You can build that confidence quite simply, and your workout routine is a fantastic tool.
Where does confidence come from?
For most of us, confidence comes from accomplishment. Whether we got the job, made the sale, gave an amazing performance or made a difference for someone else, seeing our hard work pay off feels like proof that we’re capable and more success is on the way.
Another source of confidence is your overall self-esteem. Feeling good about yourself, liking who you are, and feeling like you belong in the world are aspects of confidence that make you feel more content and resilient. Paradoxically, activities that help you feel relaxed, calm, and connected, like meditation, nurturing relationships, and exercise, also feed back into your confidence and self-worth.
Although this is not about crushing huge accomplishments every single day, your daily routine is a ripe opportunity to build small wins. Getting into a steady rhythm with activities that increase your confidence makes the practice effortless and increases your self-confidence exponentially.
How does exercise increase confidence?
The first reason why exercise is an incredible source of confidence is that it lends itself easily to accomplishment. Maybe your favorite team had an amazing game, you mastered a new move in your kickboxing class, or you made it to the end of a challenging spin and felt ready for more. No matter how you workout, you’re learning and growing, and it feels powerful.
The second way exercise naturally builds your faith in yourself is by getting you into a routine. Your morning run, evening dog walk, or Saturday afternoon family hike turn into locked-in, easy ways to gain accomplishment points. Plus with regularity, you even get pleasure from looking forward to your workout sessions.
And while many other hobbies and routines can offer similar benefits with stackable wins, a third thing exercise brings is endorphins. Within 5 to 30 minutes of raising your heart rate, your brain gets a flood of these feel-good hormones. You get a sense of success and that becomes a cravable reward. This brain bliss also reduces stress and anxiety, making it even easier to notice your success and appreciate it.
The last thing that makes exercise perfect for building self-confidence is that it has enormous effects on your body image. Obviously, sculpting your butt will make you feel amazing in your favorite jeans. But body image runs deeper than that. The belief that you’re taking good care of yourself and the experience of joyful movement help you look at yourself differently and see more of your beauty.
These self-perception benefits can start before you see measurable progress in your workouts, and this is how fitness makes its greatest contribution to your self-esteem. You don’t have to wait until you’ve lost 20 lbs or gone down 2 dress sizes to feel gorgeous. As soon as you start to enjoy your body, your self-image starts to shift, and it suddenly gets easier to love your body as it is.
If you’re craving more confidence, I urge you to begin a fitness routine. Do whatever you love. It doesn’t matter what, as long as you move your body in an enjoyable way and do it consistently. I challenge you to notice at what point you start to feel better about yourself. And when the confidence begins to surge, embrace it. Those good feelings will make your life easier and happier, and you deserve that.
As always, nutrition is an important factor in your fitness success, no matter what your body goals. If you want to learn how your eating habits can speed up your results, sign up for my Fitness Tracker here.
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