Self belief affects everything
Everybody struggles sometimes with believing in their abilities. For me personally, not so many years ago my level of self-belief was at rock bottom.
I had one friend and no social life. And a dead end job with no prospects (which I understood when I took the job). I’d always wanted to work for myself, but I KNEW it would never happen. I just wasn’t meant to be successful.
I was stuck in my ways, never asserted myself and never, ever went outside of my structured comfort zone!
But, I never saw it as a problem with my self belief. I just reasoned was that if I wasn’t doing it already, I didn’t need to do it. When in reality, I didn’t do it because I didn’t think I could.
I still have days, even now, when I know I might fail, or won’t be the best I can be, but that’s OK. I’ve learnt that failing is a good thing and not being the best at things is OK too.
You see, it’s only by failing that we can grow and do better next time. It’s only by failing that we seek improvement and it’s only by failing a lot that we can truly be the best we can be.
Failure is a strong word. But, what it really means is not being perfect. Not always being right. Not having everyone accept what you’re saying without question and not having the answers to every question.
You need to fail to see where your weaknesses are, it’s the only way to truly learn how to be better, and it’s an important part in achieving your dreams.
Increasing self belief
If you make a mistake, use the feedback it gives you to fix the problem, learn from the mistake and you’ve grown some more.
Achieving greater self belief is all about growing as an individual and the best way to grow is to just go and try, learn from any mistakes and then try the newer, better version. See every mistake as an opportunity to learn and grow, then get back to trying!
Some ideas that will help you to grow and increase your level of self belief are;
- Step slightly outside of your comfort zone every day, push past your initial discomfort and see it as an opportunity to grow.
- Accept that not every one will like you. You can’t please everybody, so why not concentrate on pleasing yourself?
- Don’t listen to the negative self-talk that normally holds you back.
- Try going into situations even when you’re not sure of the result and learn to be OK with that.
- Remember that it’s alright to fail, that you can be OK in failure.
If you use these strategies on an ongoing basis, you’ll soon come to realize you’re much more capable than you thought you were.
Finally, remember that you’re stronger, more capable and more tolerant of initial discomfort than you think and you won’t really know if you can do a thing, until you try. So, go out there and try, learn from your mistakes, then try again!
Before you know it, your beliefs about what you can achieve will improve dramatically 🙂
Why not share some of your small wins in the comments? Success at anything starts with small steps. You should be proud of all your small achievements 🙂
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