The habits of confident people: 10 daily practices of people who are sure of themselves

When one’s confident and self-assured, it will show in the way they approach the world.

They simply exude an aura that they know what they’re doing.

In this article, I will enumerate 10 things that confident people practice daily in their lives.

1) They don’t take criticism personally

One of the best ways to see whether someone is truly confident or not is to see how they react to criticism.

People who are a bit short on confidence will react with anger or denial—refusing or maybe being unable to distinguish between empty hate and actual criticism, and treat them all as personal insults.

So they’ll say something like “Are you just trying to drag me down?” or “You’re always just negative when it comes to my work.”

Those who are genuinely confident, however, know how to take criticism gracefully.

They will listen to and learn from genuine criticism, and know how to identify empty insults and just let them roll off their backs.

2) They try to lift others up

Another good way you can tell whether someone is actually confident or just faking confidence is to see how they treat those who are working their way to the top.

If they keep on trying to put others in “their place,” or seem to get a bit sour every time they see someone else pulling ahead, they’re not confident—they’re surely compensating for something.

Confident people are more concerned about lifting others up around them or, at least, not dragging them down.

This can be as simple as giving people words of encouragement, or as big as donating to charities and workshops.

3) They ask for help when they need it

Confident people don’t sweat it when they don’t have the knowledge or skills they wish they had. They understand that it’s just a normal part of being human.

So they don’t mind admitting that they can’t do it all and that sometimes they will need outside help.

And this applies even to things that they know they’re good at!

Perhaps they might be talented at digital art, but don’t know how to use the painting software they just got for their birthday, so they’d ask for advice from people who know.

Or perhaps they know baking well enough, but they simply aren’t fast enough to make as much bread as they need all by themselves, so they will ask someone to help them out in the kitchen.

Confident people simply don’t feel embarrassed to admit that there’s plenty of stuff they know nothing about…because that’s normal.

4) They know to say “no”

It’s hard sometimes to say no when opportunities come knocking at the door or when friends reach out and ask for a favor.

But there’s only so much we can do at once, and confident people know how to prioritize themselves.

They know that if you keep saying “yes” every time, sooner or later you’ll find yourself stretched thin and unable to actually get anything done.

What sets confident people apart from the rest is the strength of will they have.

This strength of will helps them better resist peer pressure and the fear of missing out—both things that often force people to say “yes” when they should have said “no.”

And by saying “no”, they get to reserve their time and energy for the things that truly deserve their commitment.

5) They never say never

No matter how difficult the challenge may be, they won’t just hang their hands and say that they’ll never get it done. Instead, they will try to exhaust every single option they have first… and then try to give it a fair shot.

If asked if they could jog a whole ten miles, for example, they won’t go “I’m not fit enough for that!” and hang up their hands. They’ll instead say “Not now, I need to get fit first,” exercise, and then jog those ten miles when they’re able.

Or if asked if they could cook a hundred servings of spaghetti, instead of saying “I can’t cook that much!” they’d say “Well, I’d need two others to help me prepare.”

They live by the idea that so long as there’s a will, there’s a way. And if something does prove to be well and truly beyond their abilities, then they can rest easy knowing they did their best.

6) They aren’t afraid of being wrong

Confident people are not afraid to look “stupid” or “dumb”. They’re also totally fine of being proven wrong. In fact, they’d respect and thank the other person for it.

When someone suggests that there’s a better way to get things done, they hear them out and see if there’s any merit to their words.

For that same reason, they aren’t afraid of trying out new things either, even though they know that they’re bound to fail at some point.

You see, they don’t tie their sense of self-worth to them being “right”, so being wrong is not, to them, a big personal failing—at all!

As I have mentioned before, failure and ignorance is just part of what it means to be human, and confident people know this.

7) They don’t judge or discriminate

Confident people know better than to judge or discriminate. If anything, they see no reason why they should even judge in the first place.

Passing judgment on others is something that insecure people do to make themselves feel better. An insecure musician, for example, can easily spend all day talking about how people who listen to this or that artist have poor taste.

Someone who is truly confident is content in simply letting people be, and not presume to know people simply based on things like age, race, taste, or even choice of hobby.

As far as they’re concerned, everyone has the potential to do good things or have good ideas, and discriminating on people only cuts them off from the diamonds in the rough.

8) They keep themselves grounded

Confidence is generally a good thing to have… until you have too much of it.

What sets confident people apart from show-offs and know-it-alls is the fact that they keep themselves grounded and aware of their own limits.

Even if they are an experienced diver, for example, they won’t go out and dive anywhere remotely dangerous without a diving partner, or ignore people telling them they’re not experienced enough for a certain dive spot.

They know that no matter how good they are, they can still make mistakes—and sometimes those mistakes can be quite dangerous.

9) They treat themselves with TLC

Confident people take care of their mental, physical, and spiritual well-being. They see themselves as someone important and so it’s a must to treat themselves with TLC.

They also pay attention to their looks, and always take the time every day to make sure they’re clean and sharply dressed.

They don’t do it so that they can look good to others—it’s not like they have something to prove! They do it so that they can look good to themselves.

Just as dressing up in fancy clothing can make one feel a million bucks even when there’s nobody around to see them, keeping oneself clean and looking confident will help them actually stay confident.

It’s possible to remain confident while looking like you have just walked through a warzone, but looking haggard certainly doesn’t help.

10) They compete with themselves

Confident people know better than to continuously compare themselves with others.

They don’t think “I’ll show you” or “I’m much better than you” when someone achieves something. They see them as inspiration.

It’s simply a fact of life that no matter where you are and how good you might be at something, there’s always someone better than you.

What confident people do instead is to compare themselves, in the present, with who they can become in the future.

It’s empowering, after all, to know just how far you’ve come and how much better you’ve become.

Last words

A lot of us have the preconception that being confident means being good at something and making sure that people around us know it.

But this is just our insecurities projecting themselves—truly confident people are quietly self-assured and don’t need praise from others.

The funny thing is that the habits that confident people do also build up one’s self-confidence. So if you want to be more like them, you can start by incorporating into your life the things I’ve listed above.

Being confident is all about striking a balance. And while finding that balance can be hard, it becomes easier to maintain once you’ve found it.