Most people go through life fearful, uncertain, and highly reactionary. Most of their decisions are made based on what others will think, what the lowest risk option is, and how they can ruffle the fewest number of feathers. In other words, the majority of people lack confidence. Sound familiar?
If you want to be a more confident person, it starts by proactively addressing the underlying factors that are keeping you from being confident and then making smart decisions that give you the strength to think and act as you feel convicted.
What is Confidence?
Psychology Today describes it best when they say, “Confidence is a belief in oneself, the conviction that one has the ability to meet life’s challenges and to succeed—and the willingness to act accordingly. Being confident requires a realistic sense of one’s capabilities and feeling secure in that knowledge.”
The interesting thing about confidence is that it’s not fixed in place. It can increase and decrease over time. Practice, positive experience, and a mindset of abundance can all lead to greater confidence, while passivity, negative experiences, and a mindset of scarcity will deplete your confidence.
It’s also important to realize that confidence is not an all-encompassing trait. In other words, you can be extremely confident in your professional life, but lack confidence in your romantic relationships or personal friendships. Confidence must be prioritized in each area of your life. Otherwise, you could become misaligned.
5 Tips for Achieving Greater Confidence
Do you ever wish you could be the guy who stands up for what he believes in by wearing one of these shirts? Or do you dream of one day being able to deliver a presentation for your company without having knots in your stomach?
Remember, confidence is not fixed. If you proactively work toward improving your confidence in key areas of your life, good things will happen. Here are a few tips:
1. Know Who You Are
The first step to being confident is to know who you are. Not who you think people want you to be, but who you actually are at your core. All confidence is rooted in assurance, and unless you have a degree of certainty about who you are, it’s hard to be confident. You can make it seem like you are, but you’ll never actually possess the confidence you’re seeking.
2. Do Away With the Notion of Perfectionism
The next step is to ditch the idea that you can be perfect. Confidence is not about getting everything right 100 percent of the time. It’s about knowing who you are, doing your best, and then being okay with the results – because you know that the results don’t define you.
3. Adopt a Growth Mindset
People who are scared and fearful operate out of a place of scarcity. They’re always scared that there won’t be enough to go around. They assume that when someone else wins, it means someone always has to lose. But in reality, that’s just a misguided view of the world.
If you want to cultivate confidence, you must adopt a growth mindset. This mindset is rooted in abundance and gratitude. It’s the idea that there’s always enough to go around. And that when other people around you are winning, it actually makes you more likely to be successful.
4. Ready…Set…Power Pose!
Research shows that the simple act of making a power pose (like Superman) actually increases confidence. Even doing it for just two minutes is enough to raise your testosterone levels and lower stress hormones like cortisol. So if you’re ever looking for a way to instantly boost your confidence before a big meeting or event, grab a couple of minutes to yourself and strike a pose!
5. Surround Yourself With Positive People
The final tip is to make sure you’re spending time with other people who are confident, positive, and uplifting. The people you spend your time with are the people who will impact your mindset the most. Do yourself a favor and cut out the negative folks in your life and make more room for the right people.
Set Yourself Up for Success
It’s possible to be successful and still lack confidence. However, it’s almost impossible to have pure, unadulterated confidence and not be successful. Read that again if you have to. It basically means confident people are almost always going to experience a higher level of success than the average person. Thus if you can find a way to tap into your inner confidence and bring it to life, your life will take on a totally new meaning.