A lack of self-confidence leads to insecurity, inhibitions and self-doubt and is a guarantee for failure. In this article you will learn how to strengthen your self-confidence and how to renew your faith in yourself with the help of 5 tips.
Self-confidence is the confidence in one’s own abilities. People with high self-confidence believe that they have the necessary resources to meet the challenges ahead.
Lack of self-confidence
People with low self-confidence have little confidence in themselves. They are insecure and anxious and plagued by persistent self-doubt. They shy away from challenges because they think they are not up to them. They are convinced that they do not have enough skills to cope with the demands of the world.
Just like a lack of self-esteem, a low level of self-confidence has its origin in the experiences we have had as children. If we have not had a sense of achievement, if we have not recognized success as such, if our parents have not believed in us or have always held us back, we have not gained the necessary trust in ourselves.
We could not experience that we are able to cope with demands and challenges.
Once generated, low self-confidence in turn ensures that the negative self-image is maintained. Because if I don’t have confidence in my abilities, I don’t take chances and miss the opportunity to achieve success and prove to myself that I can. The lack of success in turn serves as further proof of my stupidity and inferiority.
Limits in the head
Those with low self-confidence are insecure, anxious and inhibited in dealing with others. The constant self-doubt these people suffer from boycotts their lives and guarantees failure.
The fatal thing is that the only boundaries that hold back people with low self-confidence are those in their heads. Those with low self-confidence are no less intelligent, attractive or capable than others. It is only the image in her head that makes her look that way.
The crucial difference between people with high self-confidence and those with low self-confidence lies in one thing and one thing alone: their belief in themselves.
Because people with low self-confidence lack this belief in themselves, they take no chances and remain passive. Because they do not believe in their own success, they also give up faster than others, which can lead to people with low self-confidence actually being more unsuccessful.
People with high self-confidence, on the other hand, believe that they are smart and imaginative enough to solve a puzzle. Whether or not they are actually that doesn’t matter. Most important is their belief in it. Because this has a motivating effect. It leads to them taking the initiative and working longer and more intensively on their tasks. This in turn guarantees their success in many cases.
So it is as Henry Ford once said:
“Whether you think you can do it or you can’t – in both cases you’re right.”
Strengthening self-confidence
So there are enough reasons to want to strengthen your self-confidence. You don’t have to become a better person, you just have to overcome the limits in your head. And for this I have effective tips for you, which strengthen your self-confidence:
Strength of your self-esteem
The more positive your self-image becomes, the sooner you will realize what you can do and what you have to offer. You will see that you are not a worse person and do nothing wrong. You will understand that it is normal and good to make mistakes and failures are not judgments about you as a person.
In order to increase your self-esteem you should first get to know your inner critic and put him in his place.
Show you your successes
Those who have little self-confidence believe that they have not experienced success. But we all achieve success. We only have to recognize them as such. I can write a 1+ twice in a row if I blame the nice examiner for the first 1+, who always means well with me and ascribes the second to the easy tasks, both cannot strengthen my self-confidence, because I simply do not associate the achieved success with me.
An essential point is therefore to pay attention to one’s own attribution of causes, i.e. to what explanations I usually find for my successes. You can find an overview of the different cause attributions and their effects here.
But even if you never got a 1+, you have already been successful in your life. Most likely you just don’t see your successes because you don’t consider them special. Here a success diary can help you.
A success diary helps you to perceive and record your own achievements, to reflect on your strengths and to build up self-confidence. It shows you what has gone really well with you and what you can do well every single day. Make a daily note (alternatively 2-3 times a week) of what you have achieved on each day and what you have achieved particularly well.
Make sure that even the smallest successes count, because of course we don’t experience a successful presentation or a test success every day. But you could count it a success to have arrived punctually at work, to have enjoyed a self-prepared lunch or to have made a clear announcement to your annoying colleague.
Regularly kept, a success diary expands your view for all your achievements and strengths and helps you to strengthen your self-confidence.
Search challenges
Another way to strengthen your self-confidence is to create new experiences of success. And you achieve this by leaving your comfort zone and looking for new challenges. It is important that the tasks you have chosen are manageable. Also pay attention to realistic planning, otherwise every project can quickly turn into a failure.
So instead of asking your boss to raise your salary or having your entire basement mucked out by next week, make a plan to ask someone for directions or clean out a bookshelf.
So you can experience that something you’re afraid of doesn’t turn out to be so bad. And you can experience how an original self-doubt (“I can’t do that”) gives way to reality (“I did it after all”).
Question your thoughts
The easiest way to combat self-doubt is to check their truth content. Because we tend to imagine the worst disaster scenarios and to exaggerate in our self-doubt. If you are haunted by the thought: “I am a total failure and can’t do anything”, then question this thought.