6 WAYS TO BECOME MORE CONFIDENT
Mental Toughness comprises:
resilience – the ability to setback from setbacks and failures
and
confidence – the ability to spot and seize opportunities.
Within the MTQ48 framework, the confidence subscale embraces both self-belief and influencing skills. Your confidence is essential in building your own self-esteem and wellbeing and also how you are perceived by others. It is a critical factor in your career and life success which comes easily to some but not others.
Here are 6 confidence boosters to become more confident:
1. Choose your state
The way you think and feel determines the way you act and behave, therefore if you want to act in a confident manner you need to think confidently. It is your choice. You can manage, control and change your thoughts and feelings by using your internal voice to reaffirm and replay positive phrases like “yes I can” or “although I missed out last time I will make it happen today”.
2. Understand what your strengths are
We have an inbuilt negativity bias, which often subconsciously silences our positive voice and replaces it with negative messages. It’s therefore important to be very clear in our own mind what our skills, strengths, experiences are. Write a list and put it somewhere visible for easy reference and reaffirmation.
3 Keep track of WWW – “what’s working well”
High performers always measure their progress by recording their activity and results. By doing the same you can stay on track and build your confidence as you see your progress in improving results. Of course it could work the other way in that you lose confidence if your results fade. However this is where your positive mindset is important and you view a failure or setback as a learning opportunity and an ability to change your approach so you can perform better next time.
4. Start small and be consistent by developing a routine that builds your confidence
One of the ways to increase your confidence is to get started and complete a series of specific low-level goals within your known capability. Confidence is incremental so that if you have completed 3-4 things well, your confidence will grow and increase your chances of achieving the next goal. One of the reasons people lose confidence is by setting goals that aren’t specific or realistic. Often you need to reduce big general goals like “I’m going to get fit” to specific goals like “each day this week I am going to walk a kilometre”. Setting achievable goals in the timeframe builds your confidence.
5. Expand your comfort zone by trying something new
Stepping outside your normal routine and comfort zone and trying something new, helps you to develop your skills, knowledge, and confidence. By trying something new you create additional ways and opportunities to be successful. You can extend your boundaries with something mundane like driving home from work a different route or trying something new on the takeaway menu. However, pushing yourself harder to extend your personal capacity by trying rock climbing or a running a marathon provides the opportunity to turbo boost your confidence and self belief.
6. Be courageous
Confidence is often courage dressed up in disguise. There are so many times when you have to “fake it before you make it”. When you don’t feel confident at all you just have to get started and try and make the best of it . Often your courage will be rewarded with a successful outcome, which boosts your confidence “I CAN do that”. A successful outcome is one of the best confidence boosters.
If you are a sports lover you’ll see on the court or field that confidence can be temporary. It can be lost but it can be regained and it’s the same in every walk of life. Confidence breeds confidence and you have to get started somewhere. I’m confident these 6 confidence boosters can help you!
Original Post from Mental Toughness Partners
