Newsletter issue
Quick Tool To Boost Your Confidence: A Must Have!
Sent on 11th March 2023
Do you prefer to listen? here's the audio version:
Hey there,
It's Bruna here, happy weekend!
In this week's issue, I will share a very simple, instant and powerful way to boost your self-esteem so that you can use it when you need to take important decisions or public appearances or you simply feel low. It’s quick, easy to set up and accessible anywhere.
It will take you about 3 minutes 56 seconds to read this newsletter, and you'll walk away with:
- Cool facts that prove your greatness
- A visual reference of your value
- An instant fix when you need to lift yourself up quickly
Enjoy!
The Problem: Low Self-Esteem
How many adults do you think suffer from low self-esteem?
A study published in the journal of Social Science & Medicine in 2017 found that about one-third of adults in the United Kingdom reported low self-esteem*. While self-esteem is a complex concept that a single statistic cannot fully capture, it does give you an idea that it’s a widely common issue.
Increasing low self-esteem is a multifaceted journey, yet it could be easily achieved if we had these two habits:
When a client with low self-esteem hears about the following, super simple exercise, they light up immediately and can’t wait to start doing it! And when they do it, they struggle to believe they didn't think about something so simple, yet effective, before!
The Context:
Research shows that after thinking about happy events for just 12 minutes, people feel more positive about themselves and set higher expectations of what they can achieve in the future (on the flip-side, those who think about negative events for about 12 minutes rate themselves as less-confident, friendly, popular and intelligent – see “Influence of affect on cognitive social learning person variables” – Wright & Mischel).
The Solution: The LoveFolder
My quick exercise draws from the idea that a positive mood leads to inspired actions and that:
A quick way to empower yourself and INSTANTLY feel better consists in…creating a folder. Physical or digital, it’s really as simple as that.
When you feel your confidence is fading away and you need to bring it back quickly and firmly… you can dive into your LoveFolder (my clients also call it Confidence Folder / Pride Folder / Recognition Folder… up to you!) and absorb the beautiful energy that comes from public recognition of your value.
The LoveFolder is a specific place (it could be digital – easily accessible anytime from your smartphone, or real – at home/office) where you collect ALL the great feedback, emails, compliments, testimonials and so on you’ve received so far (meaningful birthday cards included!). I created it in my Outlook, and every time I receive a nice message on Whatsapp/Linkedin/Text I screenshot it and send it to my email address so I can move it to my LoveFolder).
How many adults do you think suffer from low self-esteem?
A study published in the journal of Social Science & Medicine in 2017 found that about one-third of adults in the United Kingdom reported low self-esteem*. While self-esteem is a complex concept that a single statistic cannot fully capture, it does give you an idea that it’s a widely common issue.
Increasing low self-esteem is a multifaceted journey, yet it could be easily achieved if we had these two habits:
- Celebrating past and current achievements
- Reminding ourselves about our value and how it contributed to the world through evidence and facts
When a client with low self-esteem hears about the following, super simple exercise, they light up immediately and can’t wait to start doing it! And when they do it, they struggle to believe they didn't think about something so simple, yet effective, before!
Research shows that after thinking about happy events for just 12 minutes, people feel more positive about themselves and set higher expectations of what they can achieve in the future (on the flip-side, those who think about negative events for about 12 minutes rate themselves as less-confident, friendly, popular and intelligent – see “Influence of affect on cognitive social learning person variables” – Wright & Mischel).
The Solution: The LoveFolder
My quick exercise draws from the idea that a positive mood leads to inspired actions and that:
Positive memories have the power to make the future seem brighter, triggering proactive behaviour.
A quick way to empower yourself and INSTANTLY feel better consists in…creating a folder. Physical or digital, it’s really as simple as that.
When you feel your confidence is fading away and you need to bring it back quickly and firmly… you can dive into your LoveFolder (my clients also call it Confidence Folder / Pride Folder / Recognition Folder… up to you!) and absorb the beautiful energy that comes from public recognition of your value.
The LoveFolder is a specific place (it could be digital – easily accessible anytime from your smartphone, or real – at home/office) where you collect ALL the great feedback, emails, compliments, testimonials and so on you’ve received so far (meaningful birthday cards included!). I created it in my Outlook, and every time I receive a nice message on Whatsapp/Linkedin/Text I screenshot it and send it to my email address so I can move it to my LoveFolder).
My LoveFolder sits in my Outlook and I forward messages from other platforms into here, so that everything is in one place.
I’m sure you’ve received plenty of nice messages, each time smiling and thinking “Wow, that’s really nice to hear!”… but then you have left these comments where they are. Isn’t it a pity to let such wealth be forgotten? Wouldn’t it make you feel great to dive into the folder once in a while, to remind you how great and appreciated you are?
So scan your Facebook, Whatsapp, email, Linkedin, texts and every single channel you use to communicate with the rest of the world.
Building your own LoveFolder will help you:
Ideally, you want to dive into your LoveFolder right before starting a new challenge or taking a relevant decision so that your internal state is in the ideal condition.
From now on, every time you receive appreciation in whatever form, move it in this folder so that your evidence-based esteem booster will grow and serve you at any point in your life.
So why don’t you give it a go and let me know how it feels? I can’t wait to hear about it!
See you in two weeks, same place, same time.
Have a fab weekend,
So scan your Facebook, Whatsapp, email, Linkedin, texts and every single channel you use to communicate with the rest of the world.
Building your own LoveFolder will help you:
- Feel great when you do it
- See, touch, breathe your tangible value
- Store evidence of your greatness in a safe and easily accessible place
- Create the LoveFolder
- Go through your past emails, and find the ones with praise from your colleagues, bosses, friends and so on. They can be promotions, a great meeting, a speech you gave…. anything!
- Move them into your folder (digital or physical)
- Take a moment to reconnect with the spark they gave you
- Navigate that folder each time you feel low, you’re worried about an upcoming presentation/project/interview and so on.
Ideally, you want to dive into your LoveFolder right before starting a new challenge or taking a relevant decision so that your internal state is in the ideal condition.
From now on, every time you receive appreciation in whatever form, move it in this folder so that your evidence-based esteem booster will grow and serve you at any point in your life.
So why don’t you give it a go and let me know how it feels? I can’t wait to hear about it!
See you in two weeks, same place, same time.
Have a fab weekend,
*The study defined low self-esteem as a score of 15 or below on the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale, a commonly used measure of self-esteem.
P.S. Who do you know that can benefit from it? Help them by sharing it!
