Setting intentions can improve your confidence and belief in your abilities. An intention is a like a goal, but more powerful and effective, in my opinion. Intentions are the dreams that you want to achieve and the feelings you want to bring into your life. The short-term gains from setting intentions are that they can help you get a grip on negative thoughts to more neutral or positive ways of thinking the long-term gains from setting intentions may be improved confidence.

People need to stop being perfectionists. Being a perfectionist is destructive to your self-esteem, mental health and general wellbeing. However perfectionism is a common self-esteem problem that can be hard to recognise. If you’re like many people, you might be asking, “What’s wrong with being a perfectionist?” Perfection can easily be confused with having high standards but they're not the same. High standards can be healthy, productive and good for your self-esteem. However, a perfectionist will have standards that are unreasonable, unhealthy and counterproductive. It’s important to recognise perfection as a problem. Here's how to stop being a perfectionist. 

Volunteer activities build self-esteem, so volunteering your time is well worth considering. Volunteer activities offer benefits for you and your community, plus there are many options to consider. You can find something that's suited to your needs and interests, and you can make it work for you. Read this to find out how volunteering builds your self-esteem.

Insecure thoughts keep you from being happy and impact one's entire wellbeing. Everyone is insecure in some capacity, including me. The problem is that insecurities can be insidious and take over your life. They can keep you from feeling confident enough to try the things you know will make you happy. You don’t get to live your life when you are letting your negative thoughts and insecurities run the show. You don’t have to let insecure thoughts keep you from being happy any more.

Learning to say no confidently is a challenge many people face, particularly those with low self-esteem. Too many people are afraid to say no and that comes with consequences. For example, it makes it very easy for others to take advantage of you and your own needs don’t get met. You might take on too many things or do things you resent doing. You could become overwhelmed, burned out, anxious, depressed, angry or bitter at the other person. This is not good for your physical or mental health. Learning to say no confidently is important for your own self-care and overall wellbeing.

Expecting too much from yourself is damaging to your self-esteem and overall wellbeing. It's good to have high standards, but it's important to be reasonable with yourself. Expecting too much from yourself can be associated with disappointment, burnout, anxiety, and depression, as well as low self-esteem. It's therefore in your best interest to stop expecting too much from yourself.

Your time on social media messes with your confidence whether you're aware of it or not. You may think surfing Facebook, scrolling through Instagram or chatting with friends online is harmless, but recent research, and my own personal experience, says social media messes with your confidence and can damage your self-esteem.  

Faking confidence when you’re not confident helps to build self-esteem. There’s a lot of truth to the saying "fake it ’til you make it." Faking confidence does not mean being a phoney, being overly confident or being arrogant. However, it does mean learning to be confident in a healthy way. By faking confidence you can learn how to become more confident and also build self-esteem. 

Singing is a powerful way to boost your self-esteem. It doesn’t matter how good or talented you are, the process of singing has a range of benefits. As well as helping to boost self-esteem, singing has many benefits to other areas of your life. As someone who experienced low self-esteem for a long time, singing has, personally, made a huge difference to my life. The benefits are enormous and you, too, can use singing to boost your self-esteem.

Teen girls struggle more than ever with confidence, but do you know why? Communicating with confidence can be a huge challenge find out why and the impact it has on her self-esteem.