Just don’t quite believe in yourself - You're Not Alone.
Many people in the UK, especially as they reach midlife, grapple with feelings of low self-confidence. This can be a deeply personal and isolating experience, affecting various aspects of life, from relationships to career goals, energy levels to that general feeling of wellbeing.
Why Can Self-Confidence Wane in Midlife?
There can be a whole host of contributing factors to a reduction in self-confidence and these can be very personal and unique to each individual. Here are some of the more common issues:
A Lifetime of Self-Doubt: For some, low self-confidence is a lifelong struggle, rooted in early childhood experiences or societal/cultural expectations.
Life's Challenges: As we age, we often face significant life events that can erode self-esteem, such as job loss, family breakdown or divorce, or health issues.
Societal Pressures: The relentless pursuit of perfection and the constant comparison to others can also contribute to feelings of inadequacy.
The Impact of Low Self-Confidence
Low self-confidence can have a profound impact on our lives, affecting many wide and varied areas such as:
Relationships: Difficulty forming and maintaining healthy connections with others.
Career: Hesitation to take on new challenges, set or pursue career goals.
Goal Setting: Fear of failure and a lack of motivation to set and achieve ambitious goals.
Satisfaction: A sense of dissatisfaction or unfulfillment with life.
Wellbeing: Increased risk of anxiety, depression, and other mental health issues.
According to the Mental Health Foundation, 1 in 4 adults in the UK experiences a common mental health problem, and low self-confidence is often listed as a contributing factor.
A survey found that more than a third of Brits (39%) think the pandemic has adversely affected their self-esteem, with this figure rising among women (45%).
Nearly half of Brits lack self-esteem, with more than a third claiming their levels of self-belief are at an all-time low found in a opinion poll conducted by Colgate.
The Girlguiding Study recently learned from their own research that girls in the UK have much lower confidence than their male peers, with self-esteem plummeting in the teenage years.
Weekly Tip: Practice: Play the ‘My Strengths’ Game
It can be all too easy to lose sight of our unique strengths and skills. The things that make us unique and attributes we can feel proud of. Recognising our strengths can be a good first step in building, or rebuilding, self-confidence. It can help us develop belief in ourselves and our own abilities and encourage us to try new things or set new goals.
To play this game you just need yourself, a bit of paper and a pen. If available you can enlist the help of friends, family or colleagues. Write down 3 things that you consider to be your strengths right now. Don’t make it too easy, don’t just say, “I’m a good listener”. If you are a good listener, think about why you are good at this? What are the actual strengths that make you good at it and list them down.
If you can, ask other people who know you what they consider your three main strengths to be. It’s good to ask different types of people if available. Your work colleague will likely give a very different list to your 7-year-old niece, but they will all be valid strengths that they appreciate about you.
Keep the list you made, and any you receive from others, and give it a read any time your confidence is low. You may even discover strengths you never even realised you had and can utilise in the future.
Remember, you are not alone. Many people in the UK are facing similar challenges. By starting to understand some of the causes and effects of low self-confidence, and making the choice to take one, small step to improve your self-esteem, you can begin to live a more fulfilling and satisfying life.
Would you like to explore other strategies for boosting self-confidence? If you would be interested in finding out how Solution Focussed Hypnotherapy might be able to help you, please check out the information on my website or make contact in any way you feel comfortable.
Warmest wishes,
Kim Sweetland
Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay
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