If you have a desire to succeed in life, there is no doubting the fact that you must first believe in yourself.
This can be a difficult task, as it can be easy to fall into comparison and self-doubt when coming face-to-face with failure. Experiencing feelings of doubt is natural, and we must work towards strengthening our self-confidence when encountering fear, setbacks and failures.
Achievements are a direct result of the beliefs you have in yourself. According to the The Association of Psychological Sciences, “you must believe in yourself to learn from your mistakes.
Below are some tools to help strengthen self-belief:
Accept your current situation
In order to strengthen self-belief, it is important to first accept one’s situation. Finding comfort and acceptance in the present moment and the journey that has led to where you are today.
It is important to accept ourselves and our lives fully, as resistance may serve as a roadblock.
Think positive
As individuals, we have the power to choose and direct our thoughts in the direction we want. Thinking positively is essential in our success, as our lives and actions flow towards our thoughts and thinking patterns naturally.
The quickest way of achieving belief and confidence in oneself is possessing a positive attitude. This can be achieved by expressing daily gratitude for what you have and where you are in life.
If we believe in our ability to complete a particular task, we are destined to succeed and achieve what we are set out to achieve, however it is important to note that we must follow our beliefs with perseverance and action. When positive thinking does not immediately manifest success, many people become impatient. It is important to practice patience, see past the struggles and keep faith.
Think about your past success
Reminiscing on past achievements and successes can be a great tool in regaining motivation and reminding yourself how far you’ve come.
Focusing on failures and hurt can sometimes come as default, however we can begin unlearning these behaviours by reminding ourselves of all our past successes.
Remind yourself to take a moment to reflect on the successful events of your past.
Keep good company
The company we keep is a direct reflection of our personality. Attitudes and emotions are contagious, therefore, we should largely decrease or avoid interaction with people who are jealous, defeatist and have overly negative thinking. This type of emotional infection in the form of bad company does not let us go too far. We must keep good friends in our social circle who are confident, optimistic, happy, hardworking, realistic and motivated. This type of company propels our movements forward.
Grit
Success is about perseverance, stubbornness, and determination to never give up. We must stay driven and optimistic, as rejections and setbacks are a normal part of any great endeavour.
Ultimately, setbacks and rejections helps us to evolve, grow, explore our problems and increase our knowledge to move forward in a more effective and efficient way. When you have a winning attitude, you will notice that the failures are not insurmountable problems, but rather the areas of opportunity. Moments of failure are essential in achieving success and lead us to reinvention and growth.
Be inspired
Read success stories! The type of inspiration that comes from reading the success stories of others experiencing similar situations is incredible. We must spend our time with the people who inspire us, and observe what they do in their daily lives to achieve their results. Such inspirational people can be in one’s family or friends circle. It is essential to find those relationships which motivate us to be a better person, whether it be a teacher, therapist or coach. We can also seek a deep sense of motivation through serving and helping those in need.
Be gracious
When we live with grace instead of entitlement, we do not expect anyone to do the hard work for us, but rather take responsibility for our lives. We must ask to help others, show graciousness, and have patience with those around us, and in times in which we encounter individuals who exhibit otherwise. We must devote ourselves to hard work, accepting our situation, and express gratitude.
Be passionate
To be successful in all the areas of life, we must love what we do. If we do not have passion for our career, it will not provide well for us emotionally, even if it provides for us financially. When we feel we are just going through the motions to attain a pay check, our growth will be limited both financially and personally. Choose a career that resonates with your interests. This will lead to a significant increase in quality of life, and give you the energy to jump out of bed in the morning with positive energy.
Be a goal-digger
We must experience a winning situation if we want to develop a winning attitude. For this reason, we must break down our big goals into small achievable goals and document the target dates for the achievements. According to a famous businessman, Dr. Dave White states that we largely underestimate what we can get in five years and overestimate what we can achieve in a year.
Small goals that are achievable inspire and motivate us towards our bigger goals. Confidence is built after every achievable goal and makes the journey towards success enjoyable.
Believe in yourself
In order to develop a strong belief in ourselves, we should focus on working and developing on our unique strengths. We must step out of what is familiar for the purpose of self-development. We must remain inspired and humbled to work on improving our shortcomings, because there is no perfect person out there. Instead of letting our failures bring us down, learning ways to work with them will improve our self-belief.
Take care of your health
Having excellent physical health creates a significant amount of positive energy. We are a mental, emotional, spiritual and emotional being. Our emotional, mental and spiritual health decreases tremendously if our body is not healthy physically. Our body produces the feel-good chemicals when we are physically active. These beneficial chemicals effectively medicate stress, despair and anger. Therefore, it is important to take care of one’s physical health because it generates positivity, and is the source of true wealth.
Don’t let fear stop you
“False Evidence that Appears Real” is the acronym for FEAR. Fear is the culprit that holds one back from believing in one’s abilities. Don’t give your fears power by allowing them to stop you from achieving your goals.
Once you begin to believe yourself, you will realize that experiencing anxiety and fear is human nature, and all emotions are there to teach you. You can accomplish anything that you desire if you have a vision for your life that you truly believe in.
Keep moving forward and never look back
There are going to be times in your life when you feel down, and feel like giving up. You may begin to doubt yourself by the voice in your head, but you must not listen to that voice.
Keep moving forward and be strong in every step of your life. Continue chasing your goal and ultimately, you will achieve your dreams.
Trust in yourself
Having the courage to trust yourself can assist in attaining your confidence and belief back. All the energy, confidence, strength and courage is within you.
Spend time alone to understand yourself in a better way and assess what can make you trust in yourself again. It could be through meditation, journaling or other activities.
Let a life coach help you
A professional life coach is an individual who can assist and guide you towards developing a stronger belief in your skills and abilities, and can be particularly helpful when experiencing frequent thoughts of doubt.
The quicker we shift our thoughts and actions towards success, the more quickly we can achieve our desired goals.
Activity: Examine your perception of failure. What is failure to you? If you find yourself attaching a negative connotation to this word, try reframing its meaning. Shifting our perspective on failures as learning opportunities is important and can help strengthening our belief in ourselves. We must learn that the obstacles in the path of our success are to help us move forward with a deeper sense of knowledge. According to Winston Churchill,“the pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity while the optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.”
When feelings of loneliness, hopelessness and overwhelm arise, trusting yourself can be a challenging task. Staying objective and realistic about your goals, and reframing hardships is essential to achieving success throughout life. With consistent practice and development, you can become more self-reliant and self-loving. Our potential exponentially increases once we achieve unwavering self-belief.