You have probably seen some movie or TV show based around high school and there is a scene where a guy is about to go to some event such as prom, a date, homecoming, etc. He looks at himself in the mirror and he expresses either two reactions. The first reaction is that he snaps his fingers and does some finger guns at himself. The other reaction is that he looks at himself up and down and is nervous as well as disappointed. The first guy usually leads the event with confidence, while the second guy stays nervous. Why is that? It is because of what they literally see.
The mirror is a double edged sword
A mirror can give you two things: drag you down or empower you. Because of this, I want you to go to a mirror right now, look at yourself, and answer the following questions. What do you see? Are you happy or unhappy about the way you look? Do you see someone who is attractive or someone who is ugly? If you are unhappy about the way you look, then why is it? Is it something you can directly control (acne, physique, etc)? If you are unhappy because you think you are ugly, then there is a problem. If you thought you were ugly, then you are using the mirror to drag yourself down. The thing is, you need to worry less about what you cannot control and come to terms with it. Instead, you need to identify attributes about yourself that you can directly control and see how great you are in those areas. This is the best way to use the mirror to empower you.
Focus on what you can control
I want you to focus on what you can control such as how you dress, your skin, how you style your hair, your physicality, etc. You can have a direct impact on all of these attributes. You can buy better clothing that fits you well, wash your face, etc. By working with what you can control, you can build up your strength in those areas. When you constantly progress in these areas, look at yourself in the mirror and tell yourself that you are improving and how amazing you look. I guarantee that if you do this at least once a week, your confidence will grow. This is because you will train your mind into focusing on the positivity of your growth and how you see yourself. By doing this, you will start convincing yourself of your greatness. Be like the confident kid from my introduction example; celebrate in what you see instead of wallowing in negative thoughts.
Embrace what you cannot control
A lot of us see ourselves as not that attractive. We probably think of ourselves as average looking or maybe even below that. However, you need to learn to embrace whatever flaw you think you have. Because, everyone has a flaw and no one is perfect (I know, this is cheesy, but it is true). Embrace it and forget about whatever you think is a flaw, because you have no power to change it. If you cannot change this “flaw”, then why waste time thinking about it? It is like the old saying, “don’t cry over spilt milk.” If you cannot change it, then do not cry about it. If you have no control over it, then move on and figure out how to better yourself. You need to focus your attention on what you can control and ultimately build yourself up.
The mirror is the stepping stone
As you can probably tell from reading the article, the mirror is really just a stepping stone and not what truly needs to be worked on. It is your mind that builds your confidence. You need to convince your mind in seeing yourself as a beautiful individual in the mirror. Your mindset is what is super important and the mirror can help aid you. When you are telling yourself about how great you look and what you can physically see, you will start believing it and I guarantee that your confidence will rise.
