Do you find that you’re often hard on yourself? You’re hard on yourself even when you’re quick to give others grace. Do you ever find it difficult accepting compliments? You’re self-deprecating because you just really don’t believe what they believe about you. Are you always overthinking? You dwell on the same thought over and over. Wanting to make sure that you made the right decision. And not really trusting your own judgement. Do any of those resonate with you?
If they do, then today’s encouragement on self-confidence will really serve you. Self-confidence is an attitude or feeling of trust in your own ability, your qualities, your judgement. When you have self-confidence, you believe in yourself. You know you’re able to make good choices because you trust your ability to be able to do so. You know your strengths and you have a positive view of yourself.
That’s all well and good, but what if you don’t HAVE self-confidence? What if you’re struggling to believe or trust your own abilities, qualities or judgement? What do you do then?
Well, you’re already doing one thing! You’re making the time to come here and be encouraged. I want you to really own that and give yourself the same encouragement and acknowledgment that you would give to someone else.
Some other things you can do are to write down some of your favorite quotes on self-confidence and post them where you can easily see them. Having a quick reference and reminder is something that has far greater impact than you can imagine.
Keep a list of your successes – no matter how small. Write them down, revisit them and give yourself credit for the accomplishment.
And I’m serious when I say no matter how small. Because breaking down your bigger goals into smaller, more manageable ones is another way to boost self-confidence. I want you to think about something for a minute. What if you wanted to run a marathon but you lacked confidence in your ability to complete it? So, you just didn’t do it. You couldn’t see the overall picture of success because it was too big. Now imagine that the first goal was just to walk one block. That was the first step in building up to the whole marathon. You walked that block, you wrote down your success, you celebrated your achievement. And on the days when you struggled to believe and have confidence in your ability, you could look at all of those successes and realize how far you had come. Knowing and seeing what you have already accomplished gives you the confidence to keep moving forward.
Here's some good news for you. You can learn how to become more confident in yourself. And while you may not believe it now, you were born with confidence and you can build it higher and higher every single day. So, take the first step today and start by writing down all the things that you’ve already achieved. Write down all the things that you’re good at. Set some small achievable goals and celebrate when you’ve accomplished them. Once you believe in yourself and your abilities, anything is possible. And you’ll have the self-confidence to go after them. Won’t life look pretty good then?