Confidence is the driving force that carries you through your projects and wins you the business.
Your confidence is a signal to the world that you know you have what it takes.
Confidence carries with it a certain amount of arrogance, but the positive ego boosts that come from confidence can go a long way toward building credibility with others and your peers.
Here are some of the techniques that I use to build confidence, and how I use that confidence to achieve success.
Impress people with your humble beginnings
Do you know anyone who took on a project and saw it through to the end despite never being given a chance?
These are the people who have a remarkable amount of confidence.
The first step to building confidence is understanding who you are. Write down a shortlist of your accomplishments.
You can do this on paper, or a computer and attach it to an email.
Do you list how you climbed the ladder at work, or how you learned to fly a plane by reading books and flight manuals?
Develop a belief system
The mindset that you can succeed is the foundation of your confidence.
Have a great belief that you are capable of delivering on the work that you have been asked to do.
Never let anyone tell you that you are not capable of doing the job that you are being paid to do.
When you start to gain the knowledge and skills to perform your tasks, be prepared to go through a period of mastering your work.
Read, read and read. Remember that there are thousands of books on your subject matter. This is your way of learning.
Read what others have done. Master the information that you have read. This is part of the work that you will be doing.
We have more confidence than we think we do, but we do not always have the necessary confidence to follow through.
If you have confidence, but lack follow-through, it is not confidence, but a lack of confidence.
To follow through, you must have confidence in yourself
You must make a conscious effort to do the activities that will add to your self-confidence.
Most people, including me, procrastinate, waiting for the perfect moment.
Most of the time, we think we should feel good or feel confident, but do not want to act on our feelings.
When that is the case, we are not confident. Confidence is a choice and you need to make it.
If you feel confident, you will act confident, and when you do act confident, it will build your confidence.
You can always back out, but there is no going back once you have committed to something.
By thinking about the situation, you can decide to follow through or to back out.
You can encourage yourself or you can talk yourself out of it.
Sometimes you will have a hunch about a decision, and you know that you should do the action that you think will build your confidence.
However, if you don’t do it, your body language will not reflect it.
To have confidence, you must make a conscious decision to do the action. If you lack confidence, your body language will speak for you.
The next step is having the right mindset about the decision
The process of selecting the action will help build your confidence because if you get the right attitude about the decision, you will know that you are making the right decision.
If you are negative, or you doubt your ability to follow through, your body language will support it and will get the decision wrong.
You must show confidence about the decision and give yourself the necessary strength to follow through.
You must find what you are looking for within yourself to help with the follow-through.
The ability to create the mindset for follow-through, the confidence to do it, and the strength to follow through will be the key to your confidence.
Giving yourself the necessary strength and confidence will help with follow-through.
This can be done by sharing your motivation with someone who will support and encourage you or finding someone to mentor you to help with the follow-through.
Remember, confidence is a choice, and you must make it. A combination of the following three key elements, the action you are taking, your mindset, and your confidence will help you find the confidence that you are looking for.
Confidence is built upon doing the action
This means that you must follow through with the commitment you made.
Mentally by accepting and believing that you will do the action, you create the mindset for follow-through.
The confidence to follow through is built upon your conviction.
The focus and determination to follow through are born out of the commitment and belief in yourself.
Emotionally using your thoughts to help you remember the commitment, and then using your emotions to tell you to follow through, is the most powerful tool you can use to build your confidence.
