How Is Your Self-Confidence?

"Because it is crucial for controlling one’s thoughts, organizing them into definite plans, and ultimately taking action on them, self-confidence is one of the most important factors influencing personal success." - Napoleon Hill

So how is your self-confidence?

Self-confidence, according to Napoleon Hill, is one of the most important factors influencing your personal success. And the reason it is so important is because:

Self-confidence is crucial to controlling your thoughts.
Self-confidence helps organize your thoughts in definite plans.
Self-confidence gives you the ability to take action on your definite plans.

It would seem self-confidence is pretty important.

A Brief Definition

According to Merriam-Webster, self-confidence is: confidence in oneself and in one's powers and abilities.

If we dig a little further, Merriam-Webster, defines confidence as: a feeling or consciousness of one's powers or of reliance on one's circumstances

The origin of the word confidence comes from Middle English confydence, borrowed from Anglo-French & Latin; Anglo-French confidence, borrowed from Latin confīdentia, from confīdent-, confīdens "trusting in oneself".

If we go back to the Latin, confidentia, and is rendered as assurance, confidence, boldness, impudence and audacity.

So, self-confidence is trusting in yourself and your abilities to accomplish what you set your mind and your heart on.

Self-confidence can go up and down. When things are "going well" in life then your self-confidence is likely high due to the belief that you can face challenges that come your way. If, on the other hand, life is not going very well, then your self-confidence is likely low due to the feeling that life is not going your way.

Self-confidence can also be situational. For example, you are likely self-confident that you can drive your automobile today. However, you might not have the self-confidence to perform brain surgery today. Unless, of course, you are a neurosurgeon.

Score Your Self-Confidence

So, back to the original question.

How is your self-confidence?

On a scale of 1 to 10, what would you rate your current self-confidence level? And why would you give it the score you chose? If you rated yourself 5 or less, then what do you think you can do to increase your self-confidence? What can you do to reach that next level of self-confidence?

How to Increase Your Self-Confidence

Here are some suggestions on how to build your self-confidence:

Get To Know Yourself

Set aside time to know who you are. Gain clarity on your dreams, vision and goals. Take time to learn your strengths, weaknesses, talents and passions. You must know yourself in order to build your self-confidence. Take time to get alone with yourself. As scary as it sounds, sit and do nothing. Take out a journal and write what you are thinking and feeling. You cannot grow your self-confidence if you do not know your starting place.

Set Goals

One of the best ways to boost your self-confidence is to create goals and then to achieve them. There is the never ending debate on whether you set achievable goals or what is known as Big Audacious Hairy Goals. There is a time and place for both. However, your goal should always just be outside of your comfort zone and cause you to grow and transform into who you need to be to achieve your goal.

Embrace Positive Thinking

Napoleon Hill said that self-confidence is crucial to controlling your thoughts. One of the best ways to control your thinking is to embrace positive thinking. Embrace positive thinking by challenging negative self-talk and replacing it with constructive affirmations. Do not allow yourself to dwell on negative things. Another key to positive thinking is positive talking. Do not engage in negative office talk or speak ill of others.

Face Your Fears

To build your self-confidence, you must face your fears head-on. It is vital to step outside of your comfort zone regularly. As you take calculated risks you will learn that you can face challenges and overcome them. Your self-confidence will grow only as you face your fears.

Practice Self-Compassion

Guess what. You will make mistakes as you go through life. That is normal. So show yourself compassion. As you venture out of your comfort zone and try new things and face challenges you will fall on your face sometimes. Go easy on yourself when that happens. Do not allow a mistake to derail you. Learn from your failures and grow. As you grow, your self-confidence will increase.

Develop Your Skills

One of the best ways to build your self-confidence is to learn something new. So, get out of your comfort zone and learn a new skill, take up a new hobby. Learning never stops. If you stopped learning the day you finished school, then decide now to become a learner and pick one thing you will learn today.

Surround Yourself with Positive Influences

Jim Rohn stated, "you are the average of the five people you spend the most time with." Who are you surrounding yourself with? Are you hanging out with people who want to grow and learn? Are you hanging out with people who want to take their lives to new heights? Or are you hanging out with people who complain all the time and cannot wait until the weekend? Surround yourself with people who are positive and growing. You will soon find your mindset to be more positive.

Takeaway

We looked at what self-confidence is and gave a few tips on how to increase your self-confidence. Now, let's take what we learned and put it into action. Take a few minutes and:

If you have not already, take some time and answer the question, how is your self-confidence?
Write down your self-confidence level from 1-10
Reread the ideas on how to increase your self-confidence. Pick one to try.
Make a plan for how you will use the one you picked TOMORROW to increase your self-confidence.

Conclusion

Your self-confidence influences your personal success. The higher your self-confidence, the greater your potential for success. Conversely, the lower your self-confidence, the lower your potential for success.

Do not become arrogant and prideful, but work to increase your self-confidence so that you can face the challenges of life head-on and overcome them. Prepare yourself to face failures and mistakes and learn from them. As you do this your self-confidence will grow. And as your self-confidence grows you will increase your control over your thoughts, which will lead to you organizing them into actionable steps. And before you know it, you will build the life you want.