Happy Monday from our Belize adventure!!! I am so excited to share today’s post with you! In each Monday with Mattison post, I hope to offer advice that is meaningful and may apply to your life too. Today we are three weeks into our New Years resolutions. I hope to encourage your outlook on yourself this New Year. Confidence in myself is something I have always had, but it wasn’t until a few years ago that I truly accepted my body as a woman. Here are my tips for being more confident in yourself this year and for the years to come. If you’re here just for the swimsuit, scroll all the way to the bottom!
Love Yourself
In case no one has told you today… YOU ARE AMAZING!!!! There is too much hate in the world already for you to not love yourself. With everyone’s highlight reel on Instagram, its easy to look at what others may have and what you don’t. If you find yourself comparing your life, looks, wardrobe, or whatever it is to someone else, put your phone down and remind yourself that people only share the good.
The truth is, someone will always have it better than you, and YOU will always have it better than someone else.
Accept Yourself
Have you ever looked at a dog and thought, “I wonder if that dog wishes he was a cat?” — No, you haven’t. And you shouldn’t feel that way about yourself either. Everyone is born differently. You may not have been born as a 6ft tall Brazilian bombshell, so don’t dwell on it. Sure, we all have things that we wish we could change about ourselves, but when we accept those things, we can either learn to love them or make goals to work on them.
“I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
your works are wonderful, I know that full well.” — Psalm 139:14
Know Yourself
Once you’ve accepted yourself, you then know how to either better yourself or be happy with what you got. I know that I will never be a size 2 because that’s just not the way my body was made AND I genuinely enjoy the culinary aspect of the world. A huge part of my blog is sharing the best local eats when we travel and I find joy in that. I know my body and if I don’t nourish it in a healthy way and work out, I gain weight quickly. I know what workouts I genuinely enjoy and that having a healthy balance of food and fitness makes me feel happy.
When setting goals for myself, I set attainable ones like; I want to live a balanced lifestyle and feel good about myself. Or I want to work out 4 times a week this month. Short term goals always make me feel like in achieving small milestones to my bigger goals. Unattainable goals will only lead you to feel discouraged and give up.
When you know yourself, you are able to set goals that will allow you to succeed and feel more confident.
Empower Yourself
This is the one category of this article that YOU have absolute control over. I know that if I walked into a presentation at work wearing something I didn’t feel my best in, not having done my hair or makeup, I would not perform as well as if I had left the house telling myself “dang girl you look good today, you’re going to crush this”! I am a firm believer of the “dress well, test well” or “look good, feel good” mentality in all aspects of life. Even at the gym, I have a better workout if I like what I’m wearing and feel confident in it. I can’t be the only one here right?!
Setting yourself up for success can be anything from working your butt off in the gym, to just washing your hair. Knowing yourself, accepting yourself, and bettering yourself will all allow you to feel more confident everyday. I share these words along with these photos because until the last few years, I struggled with body confidence in a swimsuit. I knew how to dress well and present myself to not show any insecurities allowing me to maintain confidence. But I never truly felt confident in a bikini when I was around others and now here I am sharing pictures on the internet.
Once I accepted myself and learned to love that my body is different, I realized that there are other factors out of my control. What I can control is to love myself, eat to fuel my body, and I work out to be strong and healthy. I hope this post inspired you to crush whatever is in front of you whether is the image you see in the mirror or a challenge you want to accomplish. What works for me may not work for you and that’s ok too. If you found this helpful, share on Facebook & Pinterest to reach more women who may need the same encouragement today!
Shop the Look:
.***Size up one size in the bottoms. The top is true to size***
