It's understood that if you're in good shape it helps your confidence, and if you're in not so great shape it can hurt confidence, possibly even lead to low self esteem. While I do think there is some truth to that, that if we feel good about our bodies and how we present ourselves to the world, that makes a difference. However these types of issues are usually deeper than that, we all know people who are in great shape that struggle with insecurities (often more). This isn't the point of this blog to get into all of that. I want to briefly talk about how regular exercise can actually build your confidence in a very practical way.
Confidence, or boldness is a practice. Life is full of challenges, some taken, some avoided. One thing that exercise does, is it gives us the practice of regularly facing challenges and overcoming them. My wife recently told me that she's not sure she would have applied to a job she applied to and got, had she not started exercising. This regular practice of exercising gives us a little boost that we can do things and accomplish them. Let's face it exercise is hard, you have to be disciplined, you have to get uncomfortable, there's going to be some struggle. It's not easy, so every time we do it, we're overcoming a challenge and building some confidence that we can and do do hard things. So I would encourage anyone that may feel like they're a little more cautious than they would like, or have a hard time pursuing goals that are outside their comfort zone to try using exercise as a way to be in the habit of someone who pursues challenges and overcomes them.
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