What is confidence? Confidence is a belief in oneself and one’s powers or abilities.
So, all you have to do is believe, right? As a kid you believed in magic, tooth fairy, Santa Clause, Easter bunny, etc. It’s so easy to believe in others but when it comes to believing in ourselves not so much!
There are many reasons we may not feel confident: poor upbringing, bullying, abuse, being mocked, having no support, being called names, failure at something we did.
When we have no confidence, it means we fear something. What are you afraid of? Think of what is the worst thing that could possibly happen. Is the worst situation really that bad?
If you are under-confident, you’ll avoid taking risks and stretching yourself and you might just not try at all. If, however, you are over-confident, you may take on too much risk, go beyond your capabilities, and crash badly.
We need the right amount of confidence. We need to be realistic yes but we also need to stretch ourselves a little bit at a time.
A confident person will do what she believes to be right, even if others criticize. She will be willing to take risks and go the extra mile to achieve better things. She will admit her mistakes and learn from them. She will accept compliments from others.
Confidence is built one step at a time, one building block stacked upon another. The good news is that we can all develop a higher level of confidence. Isn’t that wonderful to know? Confidence can be built with affirmations and positive thinking but when you set a goal and you achieve the goal, it builds you up quicker. You’ve heard of “do it afraid”? When we go beyond our fears, outside our comfort box, slowly but surely our confidence increases. You must know what you want to be and what you want to do. Confidence will grow by actually stepping out from your fear.
Examine where you are at right now and accept that you are there. Then ask yourself where do you want to be. Take small steps towards the goals that you have. Believe in your heart that you can do it. If it’s hard, bring to mind some of the things you have accomplished before. That will give you a boost. Because if you have achieved that in the past then you can achieve more. Manage your thoughts. Keep thinking that you can do that small step toward that vision you have for your life whatever that may be. Step by step your confidence will grow but it starts with the belief that you can do it. Soon you will look back and you will realize that you have become more confident than ever just because you have taken small steps towards what you wanted to do and who you wanted to be.