8 Exercises to Help You Believe in Yourself

We all have ambitions. Dreams we want to achieve. But when you don’t believe in yourself, it’s pretty hard to start working towards them. So instead, we believe we’ll fail before we’ve even tried. 

And so, we end up giving up on our dreams without ever giving them a chance.

But that’s not happening anymore. You know why? Because we are going to give you eight exercises you can keep going back to so you can learn to believe in yourself. 

Because you deserve to believe in yourself. You’re enough exactly as you are.

Eight exercises to believe in yourself 

1. Challenge your inner beliefs

First things first, you need to get to the root of your insecurity. In other words, why do you struggle to believe in yourself?

Try and narrow down the cause (or causes) by asking yourself lots of questions and letting your mind free flow as you delve deeper into your thoughts and emotions.

If you’re not sure where to begin, try using some of the following questions as prompts: 

-   Why do I think I am not good enough?

-   Has anyone made me feel like less than?

-   Did anything happen in my life (for example, childhood) that might explain my core beliefs now?

Once you’ve pinpointed where your lack of self-belief comes from, challenge it. Where is the evidence that the negative things you believe about yourself are true? 

In most cases, you’ll find that there is no factual evidence to suggest you are unworthy, just a negative self-view. And once you realise that, you can work on improving your self-esteem so you can believe start shining again.

2. “Seek discomfort”

YouTube group “Yes Theory” popularised the term “seek discomfort.” It means going out and doing the things that scare you so that they don’t scare you anymore. 

Fear is a funny thing. We often build things up in our minds to be much worse than the reality. And in seeking that discomfort, you begin to learn that fear is a mindset that you can challenge. And once you realise you are stronger than your fear, well, there’s just no stopping you! 

You don’t need to do anything big to start seeking discomfort, either. Think of a small situation that makes you uncomfortable and start there.

3. Cultivate a growth mindset

A growth mindset means knowing you have the ability to learn new things and expand your horizons. You know that if you try new things and commit to them, you can always improve your skills. Because no one is “doomed” to stay the same forever.

We’ve broken down how to cultivate a growth mindset into five easy-to-follow steps so you can open your mind and start believing in your worth.

4. Make a habit of learning new skills 

If you don’t believe in yourself enough to try new things, and then you don’t put yourself out there to try new things, do you know what you are creating? A self-fulfilling prophecy.

What that means is that by avoiding tasks you believe you aren’t good enough to do, you’re validating that belief and strengthening it to the point that eventually you’ll be so paralysed by fear that you can’t try those new things. And because you don’t practise those skills, guess what? You won’t be good at them.

But don’t worry, there is always space for a U-turn. 

Think about a skill you’ve always wanted to learn. Maybe it’s juggling, a new language, or how to fix your own clothes. Then, find the absolute beginner step and start there.

And most importantly, allow yourself to be a beginner that’s bad at something. It’s only by starting from the beginning and going through growing pains that you’re able to get to the other side.

And once you’ve realised you can learn new skills, your self-belief will take off! 

5. Give back to the community

A great way to start believing in yourself is to focus your energy outwards by giving back to the people around you.

You’ll find a strong sense of inner peace and belief in knowing you can support those in need in your community that would really benefit from your help. And that sense of community purpose will improve your self-belief.

6. Daily mantras and affirmations

Sometimes the best way to challenge your negative self-belief is to change the script. Likely, you have “I am not good enough” stuck on repeat in your mind. But what if you changed the channel and started repeating “I am good enough”?

Over time, your brain will naturally start to believe that, yes, you are good enough. So every morning, stand in front of the mirror, look yourself in the eyes and repeat:

“I am good enough; I am worthy of believing in myself.” 

The more you practice, the more you’ll start to believe.

7. Practice gratitude 

Having a positive mindset is crucial to believing in yourself. If you constantly see the negative around you, it makes sense you’ll only focus on the negative inside you, too. 

Which means it’s time to cultivate a gratitude mindset and start seeing all the blessings in your life. 

Every day, in your journal, write three to five things you are grateful for. They don’t need to be profound; you can write that you are thankful for the first coffee in the morning if that makes you happy.

You’ll learn to see that there are positives you can take away in almost every situation.

8. Celebrate all your wins

You don’t need to come first in a big talent show to win. There are things you do every day that you can consider a win. And you should celebrate every single one of them.

Did you get out of bed to do some work when you really wanted to stay and snooze? Celebrate!

Did you cook instead of ordering a takeaway for the tenth time this week? Celebrate! Did you put the washing machine on? CEL-E-BRATE!

Once you start celebrating every little win in life, you’ll feel more capable of tackling the bigger challenges that life throws your way!

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