Mastering Self Confidence for Success

My self confidence has always swung like a pendulum. Sometimes it is giant sized, other times it is midget sized. Sometimes it is up north, other times it is in the Deep South. Mostly, it is somewhere in between. In the new style blog, I will be tackling problems that are real to me or people around me. It is easier to communicate issues that I have a firm grasp on. So let us kick off with confidence.

Self confidence is an attitude. It is a state of mind that makes us see our lives from a positive perspective. When confident, we are able to believe in our strengths and abilities, and are enthusiastic about what we go through everyday. Self confidence gives us pride, independence, and emotional maturity to handle different situations and handle criticism.

Sources of Confidence

1. Achievement

Think about it, some of the most confident people you and I know are people who have achieved something in their lives. Think about all the businessmen, the athletes, the singers and a million other successful people. I find that if my confidence takes a dip, achieving something in my life helps back on my confident feet. You do not have to win the presidential elections for you to get the feeling of achievement. Set goals that you can achieve, the more wins you have under your belt, the greater your confidence will become.

2. Giving

Giving is an admission of an abundant mindset. If you give your time, your money or something of value to others, you are subconsciously telling yourself that you are blessed. You attract more than you give back in your life in terms of your self confidence.

3. Recognition

Nobody wants to be an invisible person. Invisible people are hardly confident. Do something with your life that deserves recognition and your confidence will soar like an eagle. Find something that really makes a difference in people’s lives. Do subtle self promotion and let the right people know about it. The recognition that follows will do wonders to your self confidence.

4. Association

Do you hang out with people who continuously put you down? If your friends do not believe in you, that could rub off on you. From early childhood, people are unwillingly trained to bow to the pressure from their peers. Think through the people you let into your life. Find people who empower you, and massage your ego once in a while. But at the same time find people who challenge you and aspire to add value to their lives by being a good friend. What you give out to others comes back to you tenfold.

5. Values

What do you stand for? Do you believe in yourself? If you make a promise to others and do not keep it, you are telling your subconscious mind that you cannot be trusted. When you try to tell your mind that you are going to make a success out of your venture, your subconscious mind will sabotage you. Your values and character ultimately determines how you feel about yourself.

6. Contentment

Cultivate a spirit of gratitude. Take time to thank people who are kind to you. Do not always be seeking more. Blindly trying to keep up with the Joneses can be detrimental to your confidence and bottom line. Find satisfaction within instead of constantly chasing one more thing. Count your blessings one by one and watch them multiply your confidence.

7. Hope

Hope is what makes a student doctor confident that after seven years of hard study, all will be well. If you think that your best years are ahead of you, then you will be more confident than someone who thinks of themselves as a spent force. Try and imagine better days ahead instead of getting hang up on the “good old days”.

8. Fake It

Some people believe that you should fake it until you make it. I find it really hard to fake it but sometimes necessity is the mother of all inventions. The way you dress, the way you talk and the places you hang out in will determine how many doors are open to you.

9. Personal Branding

Your personal brand will determine how you feel about yourself. If you have a good reputation, and people respect you, you are more likely to be more confident than a person who is not. Invest in your personal brand. Perhaps try and have a dish from my personal branding salad bar.

10.Learning

Self confidence grows with each lesson; whether learning from your mistakes or learning a new language. Commit to life long learning. Find people you can learn from, travel to different places and learn about others. Learn about yourself, learn a new skill. The effort applied in learning is repaid in increased confidence.

11.Overcoming Obstacles

I love hearing about stories of people who overcame challenges. I have overcome a few challenges myself in life and I can tell you for a fact overcoming challenges is one of the best way of growing your confidence. When in the middle of a calamity or a saga, your confidence may be on the lower side, but if you emerge victorious then your confidence grows in leaps and bounds. If you are facing tough times, take heart, be strong and remember that your confidence will grow the moment you overcome. So hang in there and do your best to overcome.

12.Focus

Success or failure is all in the mind. If your dominant thought is that of victory, then you will become a winner. If you focus on why things will not work, then you will be proven right sooner than later. Change your confidence level by controlling what you focus on.

Confidence and Success

Confidence and success are bedfellows. You can hardly succeed if you have low self confidence. You may be greatly talented, but pint sized confidence puts a great barrier between you and your full potential.

Success is not for the timid, it is not for those who belittle themselves. Self confidence attracts success like a magnet. If you truly believe in yourself and your abilities, it will reflect in your output.

Here is how self confidence determines success in some areas of life.

1. Careers

In the career world, right from the interview room, your self confidence has to be right. Few people will hire a person who is not sure of what they are capable of. Self confidence helps you sell yourself better than any Godfather can.

Even in business, self confidence is king. People want to do business with people who are self ascertained. They want people who believe in what they do and their value proposition. If you want to attract good business partners believe in yourself.

2 . Relationships

Confident people look more attractive. They have a better success rate in dating and finding suitable partners. Confidence is a cornerstone of healthy relationship. People with confidence issues can be a pain to be with. They either get jealous easily or become susceptible to diverse relationship problems. When problems arise in relationships, people who are self confident are more likely to face them and work out a solution.

3. Finances

People with confidence issues are more likely to buy things they do not need, with money they do not have, to impress people they do not like. (I think Will Smith first said those words). Self confidence allows for the sobriety to take control of your finances and make proper plans for the future.

Summary

Confidence affects many areas of life. There are many sources of confidence, find the areas that interest you and develop that. It is worth every effort to invest in growing your self confidence.

This is the first of the new articles that will focus exclusively on inspiring you to achieve success in your life. I will be focusing on various factors that determine success in life. I would love to hear your comments and suggestions on some of the topics that you would like me to tackle.

_{»crosslinked«}

Did you enjoy this post? Why not leave a comment below and continue the conversation, or subscribe to my feed and get articles like this delivered automatically to your feed reader.