Confidence means having trust or belief. It is a stance that one has the capacity to succeed and reach his goals. If you are presenting yourself with confidence, you can pull off pretty much anything. Confidence enables us to face difficulties with ease. Way to success is not an easy path. If we are confident enough, we tend to take risks. Thus, it widens our life experiences.
Self confidence is the key to success
One has to have firm faith in his/her skills or abilities. In order to have this kind of trust in oneself, first you need to learn to love yourselves. If a person has self confidence, he will have high expectations on his ability to succeed. The source of self confidence is in our minds itself. You just need to spark it up. Being confident makes us free from self-doubt and be optimistic. Be it in a public speech, facing an interview or answering a question from your teacher, lack of confidence results in performance below our caliber. Each and every one have their own set of strengths and weaknesses. How you make use of your strengths and try to overcome weaknesses is all that matters. Because nothing holds you back more than your own insecurities.
Some of the barriers to self confidence and how to overcome those barriers:
Being confident about one’s own self is not as easy as it sounds. There are a few obstacles that hinders confidence. It is important to overcome these barriers.
- Inferiority complex: It means constantly engaging in thoughts that are disappointing. It is a human nature to feel inferior in certain situations. Inferiority complex is a feeling that others are more attractive, more proficient and better than you are. When you keep comparing yourself to a person who is more successful and well performed, you are likely to feel like a loser. Younger generation of today find it difficult not to compare others on social media with themselves. This invokes a sense of worthlessness in them because people only share the best version of themselves in the social media.
To overcome inferiority complex, the first step is to convert the feeling of insecurity caused by comparison into inspiration. Accepting feedbacks positively without getting offended, Believing in yourself and your abilities, stop worrying that you are less competent and taking risks without any fear of failure are some of the ways to get rid of feeling inferior.
- Staying within your comfort zone: Comfort zone is your safe place because that’s where you feel secure. If you want to unlock the heights of your potential and discover your true self, you have to think outside the box. Always sticking to what you are used to makes you lazy. By breaking out of comfort zone you can challenge yourself to do better. If we don’t engage in new experiences, we don’t gain new perspectives.
- Blaming someone else: Life isn’t perfect. Everybody makes mistakes. Blaming others is a way to defend your mistakes. Sometimes you convince yourselves that it really is someone else’s fault, but sometimes you know you’re lying. Whatever it is, know what is good for you. Acknowledge your mistake and consider it as an opportunity to learn and develop. Remember that you are solely responsible for your success and failure.
- Over confidence: Too much is too bad. Being confident is necessary but having too much it causes more harm than good. Overconfidence is when you are not capable, but you believe you do. Attaining success is fascinating yet, not easy. You must me ready to endure the pain and effort you need to get there. When you are overestimate your abilities, even a minor fail can cripple your confidence.
- Not taking risks: Whenever you take a new step, its ok not to succeed. Failure is the stepping stone to success. Fear of failure is one of the significant reasons for not taking risks. Failure is not just a failure, you get to learn the most valuable lessons. Taking risks often gives you new perspectives, opportunities or ideas otherwise you are unknown of.
- Hiding your voice: Sometimes you are afraid to share your opinion as a way to avoid being judged. It’s fine, not everyone has to agree with your objectives. A successful person is the one who has ideas, who reads, thinks, listens and therefore has something to say. A good conversationalist draws others attention and that makes them stand apart from the crowd. If you have great ideas but don’t know how to talk about it, your ideas might go useless. The only way to learn to express your words is to practice. It takes time but its worth it.
How to build confidence
- Learning to trust is the first step in building confidence. You are good just the way you are. Every human being is unique. Don’t try to imitate anyone.
- It always seems impossible until it’s done. Don’t get discouraged halfway.
- Don’t get distracted by criticism. People judge you on everything.
- Try, try until you succeed. As long as you keep going, you keep getting better. For every right step you take, the more confident you become.
- Don’t try too hard to be perfect. In the words of Maria Shriver, “Perfectionism doesn’t make you feel perfect. It makes you feel inadequate.”
- Accept complements. Seeing and knowing the good in one’s self is essential to overcome self-doubt.
- Take care of your looks. A positive body image can lead to high levels of self-esteem.
“Because one believes in oneself, one doesn’t try to convince others. Because one is content with oneself, one doesn’t need others’ approval. Because one accepts oneself, the whole world accepts him or her.”
-Lao Tzu