How confident do you feel today? Probably like most people, you are feeling a little less self-confident about at least one thing in your life. That is perfectly normal, especially if our life experiences are taking us a little out of our comfort zone. The problem arises when low self-esteem and feelings of low self-worth are something we carry around with us all the time. Whether we are experiencing a temporary feeling of lack of self-confidence, or one we face every day, there are some steps we can take to turn around low self-confidence into a belief that they can be successful in our endeavors.
1. Imagine Yourself Achieving Your Goals
The first step is to imagine yourself achieving whatever it is you are feeling less than self-confident about. If we can begin to imagine ourselves achieving our goals, we are well on the way to achieving them. Articulating our goals, by either writing them down or telling them to a friend and then constantly reaffirming ourselves having achieved those goals, is essential to achieving them.
2. Act as if You Have Achieved Your Goal
To develop self-confidence, you must start to put action into your imagination. Once you have imagined yourself achieving you must begin to act as if you are achieving your goals, even if on the inside you still feel far from self-confident. People who want to feel more confident in public speaking must practice it or they cannot achieve it. This may be as simple as attending a group meeting with a list of pre-thought questions to help you overcome your fear of initiating conversations with strangers. To achieve self-confidence in talking to strangers, you must practice talking to them.
3. Practice Your Achievements
Keep practicing until you feel self-confident and begin to enjoy what you previously feared. It’s important you praise yourself for achieving your goals. Even if others also praise your efforts, it’s what you tell yourself about your achievements, which could mean the difference between becoming self-confident and continuing to struggle with low self-esteem.
Perhaps you are wondering if this talk of self-confidence and self-worth is something that is beneficial and if it is appropriate to look to act as if you are self-confident. . In his book, “How to Win Friends and Influence People” Dale Carnegie wrote in the chapter on “How to Spur People onto Success,” the importance of “Praise the slightest improvement and praise every improvement… Be lavish in Praise.” Very few people give this gift to us, so we must learn to give it to ourselves.
