Being introspective is a very healthy thing. It helps keep a check on arrogance and inflated self-importance. However, being introspective and being underconfident are two very different traits. Introspection is an objective internal look at yourself, with the purpose of finding areas where you can improve. Under confidence is essentially doubting your every move and not trusting the strength of your abilities to carry you through challenging circumstances.
Nobody likes an arrogant, overbearing, or insensitive person.Self-Confidence But at the same time, being a timid, demure person with no faith in yourself is no better. The middle ground between both is having a healthy sense of self-confidence, which can be a key ingredient for success in the workplace as well as in your personal life. Whether you use your new confidence to haggle for a better deal on Cox cable deals or to land your dream job is up to you.
Then, you can start working on some of your weaknesses. For example, if you’re not confident with how your teeth look, you can reach out to this so they can help you enhance your smile. If you think you’re too skinny, start exercising and eating healthily
Building Up Your Self-Confidence
When you’re an over-confident person, you’re not likely to have too many friends. People often find that sort of behavior obnoxious. The only remedy is to develop introspection and bring your inflated ego down a few notches. However, when you are plagued by self-doubts, it’s not just how well-liked you are that suffers. You also likely never try to push yourself to your full potential, most probably because you don’t even know what you’re capable of.
The result is that you’re constantly holding yourself back, accomplishing only a fraction of what you can at full potential. Do you really want to go through life doubting yourself at every turn and thinking you aren’t good enough for certain things? We didn’t think so. Here’s a simple program you can start following today to build a sense of confidence in your abilities and your potential:
- Examine and Understand Your Strengths
- Stop Comparing Yourself To More Successful People
- Build on Your Strengths and Abilities
- Always Be Ready To Take On A Challenge
- Trust The Process
Let’s examine each step in some detail below.
Examine and Understand Your Strengths
Arrogant people never find it difficult to list their strengths, whether they Self-Confidence actually have them or not. But for under-confident individuals, it is much harder to figure out what you’re good at. People with self-doubt have an unpleasant habit of continually undervaluing themselves. They often tend to overlook the unique and valuable abilities or strengths they possess as commonplace. Some of the more intense cases don’t even understand if they have any abilities at all. This points towards an internal disconnect between what the mind thinks it is capable of and what it is actually capable of doing. The result usually is that you feel lost, useless, and may even develop severe self-esteem issues.
The first step, which Self-Confidence is also the most difficult step to build up your confidence, involves a long hard look at yourself. Do a little (or a lot of) soul searching. Objectively evaluate yourself, identify what things you enjoy doing, what things come easy to you, and what things make you miserable. Listing all of them down separately helps to add some substance. Value every talent, every skill, and every ability, Self-Confidence no matter how small you think it is. As you evaluate yourself, and the list of your strengths grows, you will have a clearer picture of where you stand.
Stop Comparing Yourself To More Successful People
A lot of our self-doubt comes from external sources. Specifically, when we repeatedly compare ourselves to other people who may appear more successful. Let’s get one thing straight. The only person you are in competition with is you. The only person you should be trying to outdo today is the person you were yesterday. People have a tendency to look at all the superficial trappings. They see someone with a fancy sports car or an expensive watch or a beautiful partner, and they immediately start to compare their own life to them based on these things. The reality is, there is nothing to be accomplished by trying to be superior to your fellow humans. There is, however, everything to be gained from trying to be superior to your former self.
Build on Your Strengths and Abilities
What would you prefer more? A career that pays well but makes you miserable, stressed, or even burnt out? Or a career that is closer to your strengths, making it easier for you to accomplish more? Too many of us are guilty of forcing ourselves into situations where we don’t belong. I know someone who was never good with numbers. However, he struggled his way through a degree in accounting and finance and landed a job at a fast-paced investment firm. By the third week, he was overwhelmed and ready to quit because the job was both mentally and physically exhausting.
Why? Because he wasn’t playing to his strengths. The same person happened to be one of the funniest individuals I met in college. He now does stand-up comedy, Self-Confidence making less than a steady job in investment, but still infinitely happier. Being closer to something you’re good at will mean you find it less tiresome to do every day. Confucious knew exactly what he was saying when he said to find a job you love and never work a day in your life.
Always Be Ready To Take On A Challenge
We are a race that has carved out its survival among animals that are far better equipped to be the apex predator. This sense of wariness is perhaps a leftover from our early ancestors, who had death lurking around every corner. However, times have changed since then. A sabre-toothed tiger isn’t hiding in your garden to pounce on you. No, what we are afraid now of are things that upset our normality and comfort. Being complacent or being too afraid to take on a new challenge will be the death of your personal and professional growth. You need to put yourself in a state of mind where you become hungry for challenges, eager to prove your abilities. Even if you aren’t successful, nobody can fault you for not trying.
Trust The Process
Building up confidence is a process, like any big change. You won’t magically see a headline on CNN one day announcing the invention of confidence-enhancing drugs. The change has to come from within, and at times, it may seem slow in coming. However, you need to trust the process and continue to make incremental changes in your life. As your sense of confidence grows, so will your ability to get things done. The results will start showing long before you feel them for yourself.
