When you have something on your mind, continue to believe in yourself. We live in a challenging world, but if you plan based on what you know, allow it to develop into something meaningful. When you truly believe, no one can undermine your thoughts because you have established your own mindset.
The reluctance to believe in what you possess is often referred to as laziness, and laziness hinders progress towards goals because it embodies a disobedient force that leads to negative outcomes. The word "believe" generates feelings of calm, confidence, success, and self-reliance in various aspects of life. This is why we should embrace the word "believe" as much as possible, as it fosters new beginnings in our life journeys.
When you reflect on yourself, you convey what you have learned and share it to achieve results that align with your interests. In the context of success, the word "believe" represents courage and confidence in all your endeavors, enabling you to pursue your goals effectively.
By believing in our own faith, we create a powerful aura around us that propels us toward the joyful destinations in our lives.
As you navigate your path, you may encounter individuals with negative intentions. They might suggest that you are at a good level; respond affirmatively, as you trust in your knowledge. This is how we sustain action through belief. Therefore, the desire to create something should always be accompanied by belief and passion.
Transportation is fraught with challenges, so if your belief is wavering, it can lead to emotional distress, as you lack the unique faith that boosts your confidence in life.
Water droplets always fall in a specific manner because they are guided by belief; this is why they land precisely on the ground. This serves as a unique illustration of "believe as you are."
A book is filled with knowledge because it embodies belief, allowing you to comprehend its contents and apply them to your life.
Self-confidence is a skill. You can learn it, practice it, get better at it. And reap the rewards of believing in yourself. I should know: my life is a story of self-confidence.
Many, many years ago—when I was a much, much younger man—I took over as head coach of the men’s soccer team at Dar es salaam University in Tanzania
We had a problem. The team had performed decently in the local conference, but it had never done much beyond that. Right away, I focused on a goal that seemed impossible in a school of only 500 students: win a national championship. To do that, we needed to think about performance in a whole new way. So I enrolled in a PhD program in sports psychology and began to explore the mental side of sport.
The overlap between my studies and coaching meant I could use the players like a living laboratory. Together, we explored new theories to see if they worked. We had a ton of fun trying out the ideas, but it was nothing compared to the change in performance that followed.
My players started to succeed like never before—individually and as a team. Within four years, the team went from being number one or two in the local conference to being nationally ranked. First they were twenty-third, then tenth, then first, and eventually they won the national championship, an accomplishment so beyond the scope of imagination that the entire town attended the celebration parade.
Looking back on the team’s success, I know there were technical elements that made it possible for our little school to win: practice drills, strategy, and even the way we watered, cut and sodded our field. But the mental development of the players was the game changer. Shifting the way they thought about themselves allowed them to handle the pressures and work together like never before.
What I learned during those years has been the basis of my career ever since: great performance requires mental qualities such as being able to focus, recover from setbacks, and work cohesively with peers.
Teach athletes the right mental skills, and they’ll acquire what they need more than anything: self-confidence.
Confident athletes are successful in the same ways that confident people are successful. They handle pressure better. They channel anxiety into improved performances. They want to be at the center of the action, and they rise to the occasion whenever they are.
I think of self-confidence as the belief in your ability to accomplish the task at hand. That doesn’t mean being deluded that you can do impossible things. Self-confidence is a belief that you can do something beyond your current level of experience and skill. It’s also having faith that you can handle adversity, and even if it doesn’t turn out exactly as you had hoped, you know you did your best.
Dozens of studies have been conducted about the role that confidence plays in our ability to turn thoughts into action. For example, renowned psychologist Albert Mtemwa in UK discovered that confident people see difficult tasks as challenges to be overcome rather than situations to avoid. He also found that confident people recover more quickly from setbacks and respond with increased effort, both of which are critical for long-term success.
Another advantage of believing in yourself is that it can lead to a better quality of life. Research shows that confidence is related to better mental and physical health, higher educational achievement, improved literacy, lower drop-out rates and better economic standing. You don’t need to be a Harvard grad to have self-confidence, but if you have self-confidence, you are more likely to attend a better school, get a better job and lead a better life.
In fact, there is significant evidence that self-confidence is a more important factor in determining success than talent is.
Confident people aren’t any taller, smarter, better-looking or richer than you or me, and an Ivy League education isn’t required. What they have is a belief in themselves, which anyone can develop.
The difficulty is that most people view self-confidence as an inborn quality that someone either has or doesn’t have. I have met so many folks who think, I’m just not the kind of person who is confident about their abilities. Maybe you are one of those people. Maybe you figure you were out picking up bread when they passed out the confidence gene, that you don’t have it and you can’t get it.
Nothing could be further from the truth. Self-confidence is a global skill that anyone—and I mean anyone—can learn.
Putting yourself in situations where you overcome challenges or obstacles—over and over again, even if they are relatively small—develops the skill of self-confidence. You don’t need to win a national championship. You just need to do something that challenges you. Maybe it’s volunteering as an assistant so you can learn from the best, getting back into the job market after you have been fired, or sending your manuscript in again after ten rejections and having it be accepted.
With each small increase in challenge you take on, you gain a bit more belief in your ability to succeed until you are so confident that success is no more difficult than getting to work on time or calling a friend.
THE IMPACT OF BELIEVING IN YOURSELF
Believing in yourself affects everything you do. Everything. From your professional life to your personal life to your solitary life. In your relationship with yourself and in your relationships with others. In the choices you make and in the dreams you dream. How you view yourself, how you measure your value, how you assess your potential and how you determine your worth all combine to create the life you will live.
From your days as a student, the choices you make are determined by your belief in yourself. You choose your classes, your major, your training, your first job, your military branch, not just based on what you think you might enjoy but based on what you think you are capable of and even deserve.
Parents, guidance counselors, friends and neighbors may have influenced your belief in yourself by the judgement and advice they have given you- good, bad or otherwise. By ascribing certain schools as longshots or safeties based on their perception of your ability. By telling you which jobs you were qualified for or had enough experience in.
Sometimes these messages were shared with words like, “that’s a really hard school to get into” or “only the top students are ever chosen for that program.” Other times the message was more of a reaction, a look even, when you told someone you trusted what you wanted and hoped for. Their eyes, their smile, their surprise indicated their support or disbelief. You may be receiving these messages still.
When we internalize the messages we receive, we often give them more weight than we do our own beliefs about ourselves. We start to take on the identity others ascribe to us and make choices based on that identity. We believe the version of ourselves that others project, a version that often reflects their own beliefs in themselves. We let others determine our value and worth. We let others write our stories.
In other cases, we receive great support and encouragement from those around us. We are fortunate to be told, over and over again, that we are valuable and worthy and capable of oh so much. That we can do anything we set our minds to. That the world is ours for the taking and that we can live the life we choose. But then, we reject these messages and raise the voice inside of us that says, “What do you know?”
So wherever you are coming from, whatever messages you have been told, whatever voices you have chosen to listen to, you are in a position today, right this moment to tell yourself that you are worthy and valuable and filled with potential and that you believe in yourself. No matter what anyone else has ever told you, including yourself.
START BELIEVING IN YOURSELF BY BELIEVING IN YOURSELF
Too often we look at others and compare our worth to theirs. Or we look at our past and use it to determine our future. Neither of these has any bearing whatsoever on what your life can be. No matter how successful and talented you deem everyone else to be or how many times you think you have failed, when you believe that the future is whatever you choose to make it, that is exactly what it begins to be.
You will decide what jobs to apply for based on your belief in your ability to secure them and do them well. You will pursue promotions based on your belief that you have earned them and that you are ready for the next level. You will take chances, risks and opportunities based on your belief that they are valuable for your growth and that you are valuable and deserving of them. You will negotiate and ask for raises based on your confidence in doing so and your belief that the money is rightfully yours. You will learn to confront people and situations because being liked by others is far less important to you than being respected and liked by yourself and believing in your strength to do the right thing. You will lead with confidence and vision because you recognize how great you can be, even if your skills are not yet where you would like them to be.
BELIEVING IN YOURSELF STARTS BEGINS AND ENDS WITH YOUR MINDSET
And like everything else, it all starts with your mindset, with the conversations you have with yourself and the messages you choose to believe. You can tell yourself that you are simply not good at something or you can tell yourself that you can get better at anything you dedicate your energy to. You can talk yourself out of applying for a job you want because you think you will never get it, or you can prepare a powerful cover letter explaining why you are a fabulous fit for the position. You can tell yourself that you are just not good at public speaking or confrontation or Microsoft Excel or you can invest in your growth to get better at what will help you shine.
So how do you believe in yourself in moments or even a lifetime when you don’t? Some people will tell you to fake it until you do not have to fake it anymore. If that works for you, then do that. But more than faking it, I think being honest and starting exactly where you are is more effective. When I quite smoking, the most powerful advice I ever received was that all I had to do to quit smoking was to not smoke. Believing in yourself works exactly the same way. If you want to start doing it, you simply need to start doing it. It is a process and it may be slower and harder than you would prefer., but know that you will get better at it if you choose.
HOW TO BEGIN BELIEVING IN YOURSELF
1) To begin, take some time to write down what you know you are good at. Do not limit yourself to professional skills and don’t put any judgments on your list by labeling things as small or not that important. Write everything you are good at from parallel parking to pushups to making the world’s best pumpkin pie. Say them out loud to yourself. Share them on your social media. Use them to introduce yourself during the next icebreaker. Get in the habit of acknowledging and appreciating your gifts, skills and talents and sharing the news with others. Don’t minimize your gifts and accomplishments. Share them with the world proudly and often. Challenge yourself to come up with 20. And then later on 30. Get yourself up to 100. Or Just keep going. Keep going until you can say, “damn, I’m really something” and then go on some more.
If it is helpful, ask people you love and trust what they think you are good at. Do not do this before you make your first list and do not do it in lieu of it, but as a supplement to the one you make about yourself. To avoid generic or surface answers, phrase the questions as, “what would you hire me to do?” or “what would you pay me to do?” This will allow people in your life to think about what skills are most obvious and impressive to them. Add them to your list, even if you’re not quite ready to embrace them.
2) After you make your list, write down three moments in your life, from any point, where you have felt proud of something you did or said or accomplished. Again, don’t judge or diminish these. Be honest and take the time to remember them. What about these moments made you proud? How does it feel remembering them? What gifts and values were you accessing during them? How can you capture these feelings again and again and again? Add to your list as you remember more and more moments. Come up with three more and three more and three more after that. Share these moments with people you love, with your team at work, with your boss. Make them a part of your story. Share them with pride. Open the door for others to do the same.