What Steps Can I Take to Increase My Confidence?

Steps To Increase My Confidence

Often after I give a presentation as a speaker people ask me. “How can I increase my confidence?” In one of my earlier posts I wrote about admitting you have fears. It is funny how people will go to great lengths to avoid admitting that they have fears. They will admit to stress, which is just another form of fear, but not fear.

Fear is a natural human trait. It keeps us safe both physically and emotionally. But it can get out of control. So the more you learn about fear and why we have it, the more able you are to recognize when fear is having a negative impact on your performance, productivity or personal satisfaction.

What Does It Take To Be Confident?

To be confident you have to be willing to take some risks. You have to be willing to face your fears. Many people suffer the fear of failure. They are unable to face challenges because they are afraid they will fail. That is a fear they have learned because of things that have happened to them in the past.

Maybe they have been ridiculed or criticized when they failed to meet a certain standard. It can start as early as grade school. Let’s say you tried your hardest at school and didn’t get a good grade. It made you feel bad. That bad feeling made you decide that you wouldn’t try hard again because it wasn’t worth it. Your lack of confidence can begin just like that. Learn to get over your fear of criticism. That is just somebody else’s opinion.

Get In The Game!

To build your confidence you have to get in the game. Try something new. Learn that by not always being the best you can still benefit from simply trying.

I play a lot of golf. My favorite course in the St. Louis area is Aberdeen Golf Club. I play with people who have handicaps of 7. I will never be that good. In fact, after playing for years, my handicap is 26.  That is atrocious by good-golfing measures. But it doesn’t matter to me. It is only a game and when I go out to play it I am confident I will have as much, if not more fun, than my low-handicap partners.

Start your road to confidence by being happy with yourself as you are now. Make a true and complete assessment of your skills and strengths. Focus on what you can do well, not the things you can’t do. It is going to take some work but I promise you that you will start to gain more confidence with every day. When your subconscious mind starts believing in your abilities your confidence will soar.

Believe in yourself and your belief will start to change your mind about how you feel. It is all in your attitude about yourself. A belief in your abilities only works to strengthen your confidence. But if you don’t believe in yourself first, no one else ever will. Let’s spend some time this year together. I’ll increase my confidence right along with you.

I have a lot more to say on this subject but I will save that for another post.

You can take advantage of my free offer of a strategy session lasting up to one hour by texting the word coaching to 77453