Give Yourself a Boost
I believe that confidence comes from an awareness of one's current position in life.
I'm not talking about the kind of confidence that teenagers gain from posting a selfie that receives a lot of likes, or the confidence that teenagers feel when they have a hot date to an event, or even the confidence that they can feel from getting a good grade on a test that they studied super hard for. Don't get me wrong, these things do bring happiness and increase someone's idea of their worth, but how long do those kind of boosts last?
Realizing the condition that your life is in, understanding why your life is in that condition, and being honest about how life for you is, will provide a foundation for lasting confidence. When you learn more about where you are in life, you can learn more about yourself and those around you. You can learn what cycles and habits are causing the pain that you are facing so that you can learn to break the cycles and prevent further pain. You can learn what you do best, what you are bad at, and what you can improve on. You can learn what has left emotional and physical scars, you can learn what heals those scars, and you can learn how to stop being ashamed of those scars. These are forms of knowledge that can be powerful influences when shaping your identity.
Some believe that knowledge equals freedom, and this is something that I agree with. Once you know where you are and how you got there, you lose the urge to gain validation from those around you. Learning so much about yourself when you're feeling pain is the best way to get through difficult times. Don't let yourself go through trials without gaining anything. We go through struggles to build character and to grow, not to find comfort in misery or to give up. While learning about yourself, your confidence builds because you see things that no one else does. You know what hurts you and why. You know how you feel and why. You know why you've done the things in your past and why. You know your flaws, your strengths, your habits, your morals, and your past. No one around you can take that knowledge away from you or change what you know. Once you know these things, you can own your identity and become truly confident. To own your character completely means owning your faults, insecurities, weaknesses, and mistakes which takes a lot of strength to do. You have to be very brave to own your identity, but once you've owned up to everything no one can say a thing to hurt you because either you've already known what they said or you know that what they said is not true.
If you are in a place where you are facing disappointments or shame, you're not alone and you don't always have to be in that place. You deserve to find yourself in a positive lifestyle with an abundance of love and growth. Take the time to get to know yourself, so that you can become confident enough to remove yourself from negative places.