What is self-confidence?

Self-confidence is a feeling that one has in his/her own abilities, qualities, and judgement. It is a belief in oneself. Self confidence is gained through mastery of a particular activity or aspect of life. It is a positive feeling.

STEPS FOR BUILDING SELF CONFIDENCE

The question is, how does one build a sense of balanced self-confidence?

The gospel truth is that there is no quick way, or a quick solution.

But I am happy to inform you that achieving more confident is doable, provided that you will remain  focused  and determined to carry things through. The good thing is that in the process of trying to build your self-confidence you will also build success – moreover, your confidence will come from real, solid achievement. Not even you can take this away from you!



STEP 1: PREPARING FOR YOURSELF FOR THE SELF CONFIDENCE TRIP

The first move requires that you get yourself ready for your journey to self-confidence. You need to take a critical analysis of where you are now, where you want to go, get yourself in the right frame of mind for your journey, and make a commitment by starting it and pushing to the end.

To effectively prepare for your journey, the following is required:

Look at your Achievements so far

Meditate on your life so far, and write down ten best things you've achieved in an "Achievement List." Perhaps you came top in an important test or exam, played a key role in an important team , did something that made a positive difference in someone else’s life, or delivered a project that meant a lot for your business or organisation.

Put these into a smartly formatted document, which you can look at often. And then spend a few minutes each week enjoying the success you’ve already had!

Focus on Your Strengths

Next, use a technique like SWOT Analysis  to take a look at who and where you are. Looking at your Achievement Log, and reflecting on your recent life, think about what your friends would consider to be your strengths and weaknesses. From these, think about the opportunities and threats you face.

Focus on what is Important and where you want to be

Think about the things that are really important to you, things that are really necessary, and the area you want to succeed on in your life.

Setting and achieving goals is an important part of this stage, and self-confidence comes from this process. Goal setting is the process you use to set targets for yourself, and measure your success in respect to those targets. Set goals that utilizes and harness your strengths, minimize your weaknesses, realize your opportunities, and control the threats you face.

And having set the critical goals in your life, identify the first step in each of the set goals. Make sure it's a small and easy step, perhaps taking no more than a few days to complete. Break the steps into small bits as this will make it easy for you to achieve. This will help you remain energized and encouraged.

Manage your Mind

In this phase, you need to commence managing your mind. Learn to rise up after every fall and defeat the negative inner self-talk which can destroy your confidence. Positive self-talk and assurance will go a long way in growing and uplifting your self-confidence.

Commit Yourself to Success!

The final phase of preparing for the journey is to make promise to yourself that you are absolutely committed to your journey, and that you will do all that you can to achieve it. Make sure you stay true to your commitment.

If at any point, you begin to doubt, put them down and look at them calmly and objectively. If they can be solved, that’s great. However if they are based on genuine risks, make sure you to set other goals to help take care of the identified risks.



STEP 2: MOVING OUT

At this stage,you have started approaching your goal. Do the things that are necessary and important to achieving your set goals, and commence with small and easy tasks. this will put you on the route to success – this in turn will help build the self-confidence that you desire.

Don't sit down and do nothing. Make sure you keep going no matter how small the steps might seem, they will add up, provided they are steps in the right direction.

Acquire the Knowledge and Skills You Need to Succeed

Based on your set goals, identify the skills and technicalities necessary to achieving them. And then think of how you can acquire these skills. Don’t just accept anything, step out and look for the best options available, a program or a course that fully equips and position you to achieve that goal that you have set for yourself, something that gives you a certificate or qualification that you can be proud of.

Develop yourself and don't wait or depend on anyone to do that for you, else you will end up wasting your time and being disappointed.

These days, we have a lot of resources (free and paid) online for your use.

Focus on the Initials

At the early stage, don’t try to do anything  expansive or that may seem too big for you to achieve as a beginner. Don’t aim for perfection – just enjoy doing simple and little, but meaningful things successfully and well-enough.

Take your steps one at a time and don't attempt to acquire all the knowledge in one day. It takes some time to achieve perfection or competence in any field of life.

LITTLE DROPS OF WATER FORM A MIGHTY OCEAN.

Set Small and achievable Goals

Starting with the very small goals you identified in step 1, get in the habit of setting them, achieving them, and celebrating that achievement as that will spur you to do more. Don’t make goals challenging goals at this stage, just get into the habit of achieving them in bits and celebrating them. Gradually, you will see yourself start piling up the successes!

 Keep on Managing Your Mind

Remain positive, keep celebrating and enjoying success, and keep those positive mental images strong as it keeps you going.

On the other hand, learn to handle failures and disappointments. Mistakes happen when you’re trying something new. Treat mistakes as learning experiences, and you will start to see them in a positive light. After all, there’s a lot to be said for the saying “what doesn’t kill you, makes you stronger”

You you need to know that mistakes and failures are an integral part or success.

STEP 3: GETTING CLOSER TO SUCCESS

At this stage, you’ll feel your self-confidence building. You will have completed some of the courses you started in the previous steps, and you will have a lot of success to celebrate.

This is the time to start stretching yourself beyond your comfort zone or limit. At, this point, you need to make your goals a bit bigger and challenging. Increase the size of your commitment. And acquire more skills to help you handle the tougher goals, but make sure they are closely related. That way you wouldn't need to re-invent the wheel.

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Thank you.