Children adore being the center of attraction for their parents. Hence, everyday tasks transform into chances to seek their approval. In the early childhood years, the first achievement of a child is the small token of appreciation parents send their way. Although, raising self-confident children is one of the major tasks a parent has to perform.
We cannot imagine it, but mundane tasks like finishing their meal on time, completing their worksheets, and keeping away all their things at their places are huge achievements for children who have only begun learning to be a part of the world. Therefore, these small achievements have big effects on their self-confidence.
This is why Podium School brings you some right advice that can help parents to make their child independent. With these tips, raising self-confident children is nearer than you think.
What is Confidence?
What often distinguishes fulfilled from unfulfilled life is an ingredient that is not a part of the educational curriculum which is – Confidence.
It is humbling to realize just how many great achievements have not been the result of superior talent or technical know-how, but merely that strange buoyancy of the soul that we call confidence.
Why Is Confidence So Easy To Lack?
The school wants kids to be good boys and girls. And Kids may, naively, may go on too for long, putting too much faith in existing institutions. Part of becoming an adult involves being able to embrace the painful realization that grown-ups don’t have all the answers. Therefore, we have every right, indeed a duty, to think otherwise and find and act according to our rationality. This won’t only build up your confidence but would also help you to gain an accountability and firm faith over your own decision making ability.
Why Self Confidence is Important?
People Look Up To You
When you see someone is confident or when someone confidently presents themselves, you believe the best about them. You might even look up to them since they feel so sure and confident. When you show confidence itself, people will automatically look up to you. They will be amazed by you, and because of this, you will also get more respect.
You Attract More Opportunities
When you portray a high level of confidence, you will automatically attract more opportunities and possibilities into your life. Confidence has a high energy level like all good things. Confidence vibrates on a higher frequency. Therefore, when you are confident you will vibrate on a higher level and attract more good things into your everyday life.
Most People Aren’t Confident, So Be Different
Most people are not that confident. They listen to the voice in their head that says, “you are not smart,” or “you are not good or beautiful enough.” We can eliminate this voice through affirmations. Confidence is something that can be and should be worked on. People are not born confident, they work on themselves and become a better version of themselves. A great tool to practice and learn confidence is through affirmations as mentioned earlier.
Examples of affirmations are, “I am smart, I am beautiful, I am successful, I feel amazing,” remember all these affirmations need to be in the present tense. This is a great tool to gain confidence and it is a proven method as many motivators and speakers suggest this. Keep doing it until you see the results by yourself. Do keep in mind that consistency is the key. Also, this method is used by most successful people.
How to Raise Self-Confident Children?
Building self-confidence in children is a process that begins at an early age and continues in their lives till long.
Appreciation by family and friends ushers confidence and a sense of worth in children. These factors act as stimulators for them to take up a new task with an optimistic approach.
Parents can help children perform efficiently and effectively by guiding them and planning their day accordingly. This will simplify their task and make it look achievable. Also, the tips below will help children navigate their independence easily. Let’s check them out!
Encouraging Children to be Responsible
Parents can make some reasonable rules which will foster a sense of discipline and responsibility in children, right from the earliest days of childhood. Parents must mention their roles and make children clear about their responsibilities to raise them to be self-confident.
With time, children will realize the basic purpose and utility of the task assigned to them. Therefore, this realization will disconnect the task from the obligation to do it just for the sake of approval.
Later on, children will initiate these mundane tasks themselves as they will be able to do it on their own as well as it will be a habit well-integrated into their routine. This attitude will help them work independently and responsibly. Encourage children to help you with cooking and cleaning. Ask them to take responsibility- be it for a new pet they insisted upon, or their toys, books, and clothes. Trust us, when they grow up, your children will thank you for helping them grow into well-rounded adults.
Communicate with Your Children
Deep conversations play a vital role in boosting a child’s esteem. When children talk their hearts out to their parents, it gives them a better insight into their problems. Being expressive is a solution to a lot of problems children may encounter on their journey to experience life.
When they are listening, parents get an opportunity to step into their child’s shoes and understand their child better. Hence, open communication provides parents with a chance to give the right direction to their child’s thoughts and attitudes. Listening to your children actively demonstrates that you are interested in knowing what they have to say.
Time Management
It is essential to teach kids the importance of time and a balanced daily routine that gives equal importance to all aspects of their life. Therefore, the best way is to involve kids in managing their own time.
Ask for their suggestions on how to plan the day without being biased towards studies, which will indeed make them confident and independent. Deciding their schedule will add to the kids’ sense of agency regarding their time and routine. Though underrated, fostering a sense of time management is one of the best ways to raise self-confident children.
Let Children Make their Own Decisions
Though overprotectiveness is natural and tempting, there is nothing wrong with giving your child some freedom to decide certain aspects of their day. It might be that their ideas are better than those of your own.
Making Small Decisions at Home
During early childhood years, small household chores and tasks are opportunities for kids to display their skills. It makes them feel useful and successful.
Sometimes, failure in implementing smaller decisions doesn’t impact the child’s esteem but they learn immensely from the experience. The key to raising self-confident children is to encourage them in making small decisions in their day-to-day life.
How to Go About It?
Parents should discuss things with children- begin with asking your children about what to cook for dinner, where to buy groceries from, or how to spend the weekend.
Parents should also help kids to reflect on their choices and their impacts on people around them. This can help kids evaluate the process of how to reach the final objective without harming people in their way.
Reassuring Children When They Fail
Never lash out at every mistake your children make. Aggressive and sudden criticism might affect their self-esteem negatively. As long as it is safe, let them take the lead. Reassure them when they fail and tell them that it is okay to do so.
Trust and gentle support for your children at times when they aren’t able to perform their best is a good approach to nurture their budding self-esteem. Not only will this prompt them to try the task later, but will add to the parent-child rapport you share.
Help them examine and learn better from their mistakes. As it is said that failures are stepping stones towards success.
Deciding with A Calm Mind
As a parent, we should be patient and give ample time to kids to decide after giving them options. Decisions that are taken under pressure often leave kids anxious and this anxiety can persist.
Help your child understand the difference between big decisions and small decisions. When they come to you for smaller decisions, ask them if they want your help and encourage them to decide on their own.
But for bigger decisions, you should acknowledge that they came to you for advice. Emphasize and validate the importance of their decision and suggest to them some ways in which they can tackle the situation. Gradually, kids will be able to differentiate better making them independent and responsible.
Taking a lot of time to decide on smaller things can lead to delay the larger decision, which can impact their goals. Prioritizing decisions with experienced guidance can accelerate growth in life. Dwell upon the subject of making a quick decision with the best available options. This will enhance critical thinking skills in children as well as prepare them better to take in their stride some difficult challenges.
Help Them Make a Plan
Parents can help kids understand the task and decide the course of action accordingly. After creating a schedule, parents will realize that most of the doubts have been cleared as children would gain much clarity about the process to follow. Gradually, the child’s self-confidence will increase during this process.
Be Their First Cheerleader!
Motivation is the force that keeps one going even when things get tough. Parents’ confidence in children is the biggest fuel for them. Parental support creates an emotionally safe zone for children. It reassures them of a strong support system that will provide them positive reinforcement even if the worst happens. If parents believe in them, it won’t take long for children to believe in themselves. This is one of the most impactful ways to raise self-confident children.
Psychology Tricks to Build Confidence
Confront Your Fears
Fear is a powerful, double-edged sword in your life. Without this kind of innate alarm system, your body and brain wouldn’t last a week, let alone a whole lifetime.
But here’s a thing about fear. Like an actual system in any house or car, fear’s only goal is to protect you, so it doesn’t notice when it is keeping out something good. Because just about every situation has something to be scared of, but somehow you can navigate incredibly dangerous situations with ease.
Let’s take two scenarios: crossing the street and speaking in public. In the first, you easily could get injured or killed if you are hit by a car, but the majority of people would face a busy street than to deliver a speech. Why is that? Well, control is certainly a part of it but most of that crippling fear and anxiety stems from a simple lack of practice.
This significantly more dangerous situation is not scary to you, because you know it. You have practised it.
Own Your Strengths
In the early 2000s, a game-changing psychological study showed that negatives beat out positives every time. A teacher might be happy to have a room full of interested students, but the one bored student will always bother them more. Our brains naturally think negatively more than positively. Therefore, it is advised to back your abilities and think of them highly. It can greatly help to raise self-confident children.
Set Attainable Goals
Setting attainable targets gives you something concrete to be proud of. Goal setting is incredibly helpful in just about every aspect of our lives. It allows you to consistently compare where you were to where you are.
For a lot of people, seeing their progress is enough to push even further until they have grown more than they thought they ever could. Confidence is not easy to notice initially. But you will begin to feel more bold, capable, and proud as you rack up achievement after achievement.
If this sounds intimidating, force yourself to think about each goal as it is their project. It may take some time to learn exactly how to set the right size and type of goals for yourself, but you keep on improving yourself as it is a marathon, and not a sprint.
Separate Your Weaknesses
This one tends to get people a little mixed up. Especially because we just mentioned earlier the importance of focusing on your strengths to build confidence. While that kind of positivity is undoubtedly helpful. The simple truth is that negativity is not just going to disappear from your life. Even people who affirm and reinforce their strengths every day can completely fall apart because someone insulted their weight or mocked their intelligence.
So how do you avoid suffering the same? After understanding your strengths and building that initial foundation of confidence. You should begin to recognize your weak spots. But it is more complicated than just listing your flaws because you first have to accept that there are some things you will never be able to change. Because no one in the entire world, no matter how successful, powerful, or perfect you think they are, hates something about themselves. But you must remember throughout the process, that your strengths define you far more than your weaknesses. Even if it feels like it is the other way around.
Learning how to truly accept criticism is one of the hardest tasks to accomplish. A lot many people end up struggling and failing to do so. No one wants to hear that another person doesn’t like something about you. Especially if they’re criticizing a flaw that you didn’t know you had. By accepting that you, like everyone else, have both kinds of flaws, you can build inner strength and self-esteem.
Stop Comparing
A lot of people suffer from this major problem. With access to countless pictures of beautiful people and amazing lifestyles, it is easy to start comparing. After seeing their $300,000 sports car or their weekly vacations to a private island, you might hone in on all the things they have that you don’t. This can be detrimental to your self-confidence because those fancy, expensive things begin to seem like a necessity just to catch up.
This next part might sound a bit cliche, but it couldn’t be truer. Every person is unique and has the potential to reach their kind of success. There is no point in comparing yourself to all those people because you will never be them. You will only ever be you, so embrace the gifts you do have and use them to the fullest as only you can.
Look Confident
For the most part, people, especially strangers, are unintentionally shallow. Judging you based on how you look way before they ever pay attention to what is on the inside. And this isn’t because people don’t care about your personality; it is just how our brains work. When we meet first someone, our brains start moving in overdrive to turn the small pieces of information we have into a working model that explains who the other person is.
It is usually regarding our physical behaviour. Meaning we have to make all kinds of personality assumptions just to answer simple questions like, “Are they going to hurt me?” or “Do they seem nice?”
Your body language and how to put yourself forward out there is the way other people see and conceive you. Therefore, body language becomes extremely crucial. These are some of the techniques that can be used to raise self-confident children.
Final Thoughts
Therefore, we consider that while self-confidence is the key to a good personality, this journey is gradual and tough. However, we at Podium School believe that confidence and a sense of worth can be nurtured from the earliest days of childhood. That is why we would love for you to enrol your child in our interactive courses like Creative Writing, Contemporary Dance, Chess, and Public Speaking to foster a sense of confidence and achievement in them.
Raising self-confident children is no more a hassle- do read our views on the Ultimate Tips for Parents to Raise Confident Kids and more on our Parenting Advice section on the Podium Blog.
Frequently Asked Questions
Question 01: Can confidence help you manage tricky and new situations that you have not faced before?
Answer: Yes, confident people often tend to back their abilities even in situations that are new to an individual or a team. A confident person is always more likely to find solutions to queries than someone who isn’t confident.
Question 02: Is confidence a mandatory trait in the workplace?
Answer: Totally. Technical skills are required in a workplace to carry out the operations in an organization, although apart from it, confidence is a major quality that is required almost at every stage in a workplace. From presentations to talking to superiors, and leading a team. Confidence is required everywhere.
Question 03: Does confidence affect personal relationships?
Answer: Apart from being an important quality at a workplace or in public, confidence plays a major role in personal and private relationships as well. It sets your reputation and respect in someone’s eyes. It helps you set yourself apart from others.
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