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Introduction
If you need to succeed in life, you need to adopt positive thinking and believe in yourself. Don’t wait for the world to understand your objectives and support you in your mission. The universe may conspire to make you successful, but if you don’t think you can, you can never accomplish your mission.
Set yourself reasonable targets that you know is within your potential. Keep achieving them stage by stage to boost your self-belief. Once you have made your mind and gained self-confidence, none of the world’s negative forces can break your thoughts.
In this article I will provide you 10 steps to develop and maintain a strong sense of self-belief in yourself, so that you achieve success in all your endeavors. Most of these steps may sound simple, but not many people practice them in their lives. Try these to see a marked difference in your live.
(For cell or mobile phone users, you may need to rotate the screen sometimes to get the full view).
The 10 Steps
Step 1 - Challenge The Negativity
When you start to do something, you will always notice a slight feeling of negativity inside your head, won’t you?
These are some of the common questions that you should watch out for:
1. Am I cut out for this task?
2. What if I fail?
3. Will the world laugh at me?
4. Am I pushing myself too hard?
Most of these questions stem from what others think about you. If your family or friends doubt your beliefs, it impacts your self-belief and creates slight negativity in you. All you need to do is to challenge that feeling and come out successful. Yes, you may have doubts before you set out to do something, but you should learn to ignore those doubts and keep pushing yourself harder and harder towards the goal because you believe you can do it. If you believe that you can achieve something, you surely CAN, AND cannot be stopped!
Step 2 - Work On Your Weak Areas And Improve On Them
Once, there lived a small boy who believed he could do wonders in his chosen field of sport. However, he found out that he couldn’t perfect his jumps and throws properly. He knew his weakness and worked day and night on it. His coach told him that he could never perfect his jumps!
However, the boy didn’t give up. He kept working hard for hours and days together till he not only perfected his moves but also mastered them.
He went on to become a legend in his field. This is the story of the basketball legend, Michael Jordan. The world witnessed a champion because he never gave up; instead, he worked so hard that his weakness became his strength!
Step 3 - Fight For Your Beliefs
If you don’t fight for your beliefs and stand for them, who will?
When you find that there is something wrong in the way things are being operated around you, don’t go with the crowd. You need to speak out your mind and tell them the correct method, even if you run the risk of rubbing against somebody powerful.
Never let power, money or position intimidate you. Is the road that everyone uses around you leading them to the wrong way? Be strong enough to take the road less travelled. More often than not, this will result in a huge difference in your live. When you start opposing an incorrect system, you will find many more voices joining you. It’s all about leading from the front.
Step 4 - Clarity Of Thoughts
Do you want to lose 10kgs in 3 months? If that’s your goal, you will hear many voices trying to bog you down by telling you that it is impossible to reach that mark in such a short time.
It is quite easy to get demotivated by all the negativity around you. This is why you need to win this battle even before it is fought. Have a clear idea of the step-wise goal that you have to achieve before you proceed to achieve the final target. Once you are clear in your head about the way you want to achieve the goals, there is no stopping you!
The sense of satisfaction that these small wins give you will prove to be a huge boost to your self-confidence.
Step 5 - Make A List of Captivating Characteristics That You Want To Develop
We all watch movies, don’t we?
We worship the heroes who are created to save the world from all sorts of evils. We eagerly wait for the hero’s entry on the big screen.
Why do we all love heroes? It is because they possess certain captivating characteristics. Some of the qualities that ooze self-belief are body language, boldness in voice, confident attitude, sense of humour, intelligence, humility, and more. Write down the characteristics that you like to develop on a piece of paper and pick those items that suit your character. Practise them well to give your self-esteem a phenomenal boost.
For example, if you think you have a wonderful sense of humour, work on your body language accordingly and practise a few self-written comedy gigs in front of the mirror. Perfect the art of speaking with confidence. You could even apply for part-time stand-up comedy jobs if you are good at it.
If you believe in yourself, you may become a famous comedian sooner than you think!
Step 6 - Motivate Yourself
Powerful leaders and entrepreneurs hire motivational or lifestyle coaches to work on their self-belief and confidence. However, not everybody can afford this.
When you hit a stumbling block in your path to success or when you feel bogged down by the challenges or when you are affected by the negativity around you, you need to find ways to motivate yourself. Become your own coach and unleash the power within you.
Look into the mirror and tell yourself why you shouldn’t give up and why you need to back yourself and be yourself. Talk to yourself and explain to the person in the mirror why it is important to try and keep on trying.
You will need to give it all that you can so that you run the race fully without pulling away mid-way. Having such short pep-talks with yourself at regular intervals will keep you motivated and energized to meet your goals.
Step 7 - Do Not Be Too Hard On Yourself
Many people make the mistake of shutting themselves out from the external world when they are working towards a particular objective. While they claim that it improves their concentration, what it usually does is to create more pressure on them.
Let’s take the example of an objective that we mentioned in one of the previous paragraphs – losing 10kgs in 3 months. Don’t be a stickler for perfection when you are on this goal.
When you believe you can achieve this goal, you should also allow yourself one or two cheat meals in this time frame. Being happy is very important for self-belief. The world wouldn’t come crashing down if you enjoy a pizza on a lazy Sunday with your family in this 3-month period, would it?
The great Usain Bolt once said that he never put any pressure on himself before a race and he always enjoyed by listening to his favorite music. When you relax, your body and mind get enough time to recoup and perform well when it matters.
Step 8 - Keep Learning
The true identity of a warrior is that he never stops to learn. That never-say-die-attitude is the crux of a person who has immense self-belief.
Let’s take Usain Bolt’s example again. One of the most endearing qualities that the world loves about this champ is his attitude. Another thing we all love is his trademark pose!
After announcing his retirement from the track & field sport that he dominated, Bolt could have opted to enjoy his life in his beautiful homeland of Jamaica.
He didn’t! Instead, he got to work almost immediately. He enrolled himself in a soccer training academy in Australia and is honing his skills there to become a professional footballer.
The man clearly doesn’t want to live the rest of his life on his past laurels and glory –which is an inspirational attitude, indeed!
Through his moves, he has a message for all of us - Forget Bolt the racer, here comes Bolt, the footballer!
If that’s not called self-confidence what is? It’s his constant learning and training that has made him the self-confident man that he is today.
Step 9 - Your Company Matters
You cannot change the people around you, but you can definitely decide what type of people you want to be around with.
Are the people who you are working with have to be constantly reminded of their responsibilities? Do they doubt their potential? Do they lack motivation?
If your answer is “yes” to at least one of these questions, it is time for you to move away from this group. When there is too much negativity and pessimism around you, it is very difficult to have a self-confident approach.
Work with people who are creative and look for new ways to automate existing systems to bring more profitability to the organisation.
Work with people who are always willing to run the extra mile because they believe in themselves.
Move with people who work single-mindedly towards the company’s vision, without focusing on any of the negative vibes that they get from others.
Such people will help you improve your belief in yourself. When you work in such a mutually-inspirational group, it not only helps you stay motivated always but also goes a long way in improving your overall personality development as well.
Step 10 - Setbacks Are Actually Set-Ups
Some of your efforts may not end the way you want, but you should never get disheartened in such circumstances.
Failure is not man’s biggest mistake; not trying is. We must all have learnt in our schools that failures are the stepping stones to success. This is a very true and valid statement, indeed. Failures are never real failures in our lives; they are known by names such as experiences and opportunities.
If you succeed, be thankful for the opportunities that you have been provided. If you don’t, you need to work on your strategies once more and come back stronger and better prepared.
As the great Henry Ford said, “Failure is simply the opportunity to begin again, this time more intelligently”.
Summary
She was sexually abused by her relatives as a small girl. She became a mother when she was just 14. Her baby passed away within 2 days of birth. She faced severe racist remarks and body-shaming incidents while she was in high school. However, none of it stopped her from studying hard and earning a full scholarship to college.
She started her career as a television anchor and went on to own her own network, OWN, and become the uncrowned queen of world television and the highest-paid woman TV celebrity ever! Yes, we are talking about the talk-show expert, Oprah Winfrey. She is what she is today, purely because of her self-belief. Need we say more?
Believing in yourself is one of the best gifts that you have. You should make use of this gift responsibly and use it to give wings to your dreams. If you believe in your dreams, nobody else has the power to snatch them away from you!
Today, we are all enjoying the benefits of many legends who had an unshakeable belief in themselves.
And when you believe, you receive.
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