Self-Confidence can vaguely be described as the ability of a person to have faith in his or her abilities and competence. Possessing self-confidence can give you the wings to flutter and develops a high level of passion, hope and empathy in the individual. It gives you the belief that you can confront the world and pave a path for yourself that will lead you to your dreams and aspirations. This describes exactly why building self-confidence is vital to you and how essential self-confidence is to your personality. Courage and Self Confidence go hand in hand. Courage, in the present context, refers to the capacity of being able to follow your heart despite the opposition or difficulties involved. Fear is the principal adversary of self-confidence and fulfilment. With courage, you overcome all your limitations and fears to follow your achieved targets. This inevitably increases the possibility of your success. Self Confidence and Courage give you the power to write your own destiny. In order to develop this sense of belief in yourself, you need to be optimistic and positive. Besides this, environment that you reside in and the people you interact with the most must also be positive. No matter how positive you may be, if you are surrounded by pessimistic people, you will constantly be surrounded by negative thoughts, which negatively influences your mind and soul. Therefore, you must remain in the company of idealistic and optimistic people. While an idealist close his or her eyes to the bad things in the world, the pessimist does exactly the opposite. He closes his or her eyes to all the good things in the world. It is beneficial to be aware about the potential dangers you may face, but these thoughts must not be so strong that they overpower your willingness to overcome these difficulties..
In an attempt to build self confidence, it is necessary to be aware of one’s own value. Introspect yourself to discover your hidden qualities. The more you discover your hidden qualities the more you improve your self confidence. Know your value and feel proud and honoured to be the person you are. Think of the milestones of your life and your previous successes to boost up your moral. Be focused on your mission and believe that you can do it. Negative thoughts and feelings are the enemy of self confidence. Don’t involve yourself in workplace gossip as this is an unproductive activity, which not only wastes your time but also furnishes too much consideration to irrelevant topics. It is difficult to get away from this habit to tackle initially but with time you will realize that it certainly works towards smoothing your broken confidence. Besides this, integrity is also an indispensable facet of self confidence building. Be sound and honest and never compromise on your integrity. It is these moments of weakness and regrets that haunt you later in life and shatters you confidence in yourself. A simple principle that you may follow in life is to refrain from doing things that you are dubious about. You are likely to regret these decisions in the future.
It is worth mentioning here that this task is a colossal and tedious one. Therefore, we decided to present a systematic and step by step approach to building self confidence and courage.
2.1 Taking the First Step
The most significant phase of this process of building confidence is to plan and take action on the same. Wondering and pondering on an issue will only make you feel inferior. This section provides you ways to make the whole process of taking action, smooth.
The first of the three suggested ways is to ‘Think Less and Do More’. This will bail you out of over-intuition, and you can simply go and do whatever you like. This is one of the best methodologies that I have considered so far for initiating more movement, in light of the fact that it puts you in a state of enthusiasm, and you actually look forward to the task you wish to do without worrying about the supposed wrong things that may happen to you in the process. Besides this, it allows you to be spontaneous and comfortable. If you fall in the category of people who like to think before acting on any issue, you can consider taking a couple of deep breaths before you take the plunge.
Secondly, you must lighten up a bit. Most people have a self imposed restriction on them which makes them feel that prevents them from taking an initiative quickly and at once. They believe that it is a whopping, troublesome and startling decision. In this process of confidence building, you might face some negative situation. However, it is crucial to comprehend that it is a process of development, and there will be as many negatives as there are positives. You have to focus on your destination and not on the path that leads you there. In order to maintain your, it is essential to unwind and relax. This will lighten you up and help you in dealing with the situation in a better and effective way. With a lighter state of psyche, your errands appears lighter and you can swiftly and energetically towards your goals. Initiation isn’t something you can do per force and is a particularly instinctive thing.
2.2 Face yourself
The key to building self confidence is to do things that you fear the most. When you fear something, you, in actuality, have a mental block that you might not be able to do that thing in the desired manner. Therefore, fear is nothing but an escape act. There is nothing in this world that cannot be achieved and no fear that cannot be conquered. A push or a start is all that you need to conquer your fears. The most dreadful fear that most of us have is the fear of failing. All other fears and phobias stem from this. Success and failure are two sides of the same coin, and if you have a wish to taste success; you must also have the heart to fail. It is only after you fail that you realize the real meaning of success.
The result is not relevant, what is decisive is the fact that you must try doing everything. If you don’t try, you would never know the result. If you fail the first time, try again, and if you fail the subsequent times, be stubborn enough to say “I cannot lose at this!” Keep trying until you succeed. Success is a real high point, and it is this moment of success that gives you a reassurance that you can survive everything in life and irrespective of the situation, you will always sail through. Overcoming your fears makes you stronger, firmer and confident.
There are several other techniques that have been developed by psychologists, which can help you in facing your fears better. One of these techniques is talking to the mirror. However, it is crucial for each of us to comprehend that the thrust to succeed must come from within you. All these techniques might help you in generating a level of positivity, but this is a more superficial level. As stated in the previous chapter, this book or any other resource can help you in building self confidence and courage only if you want to do it.
2.3 Self Awareness and Self Assurance
Exploring your hidden talents and competency is an indispensable facet of building self confidence and courage. Challenge yourself, face your fears and do things that are most dreadful to you. You will see a new face of your personality in the process. If you have some apparent fears, confront yourself on reasons for those fears and tell yourself that it isn’t that huge of a bargain. You will develop to become stronger and better. When you understand yourself better in terms of your skill set and what precisely you expect from your life, you will have more conviction in yourself and what you can do. Confusion leads to confrontation, and when you, yourself, are unsure about your abilities and goals, you will not be able to channelize your energies towards a common goal. Therefore, self awareness is central to self assurance.
Self Confidence and having a focussed approach in life can do wonders to your ability of handling any situation. It can have a gigantic effect in your self-confidence levels depending on how comfortably you move along in your way to effective self management. Therefore, you must plan to become more agreeable and certain.