Self-Confidence Is Key
A recent study conducted among University of Michigan students by Brad Bushman, Scott Moeller, and Jennifer Crocker, presented a “shocking” discovery: young adults these days prefer self-esteem boosters over pay checks, good grades, and sex. More and more psychological institutions are now realising how important and in-demand self-esteem and self-confidence activities are among the generations that exist today. Also, studies like the research made by E. Alpay of the Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine in London stress the importance of having a positive self-concept as early as one’s school years. Why is there a great need to boost self-esteem and self-confidence in this day and age?
“One important key to success is self-confidence. An important key to self- confidence is preparation,” says Arthur Ashe. Never before has the need to succeed been more ingrained in the thoughts of human beings than in the recent years, when keeping up with all types of advances and rising up to every challenge possible have become everyday routines. How does preparation, then, play a key factor in self-confidence?
1. Evaluate yourself objectively.
Create a list of the things you can and cannot do. Make sure to accomplish this in all honesty without being too humble. Have a close friend or relative review this list for you to ensure that you are not being too negatively biased regarding your own abilities. From this list, find out the activities that you are currently struggling with. Do you frequently get nervous when speaking in front of a large crowd? The first step has now been dealt with—you’ve identified that weakness! Now it is time to address it. Practice again and again in front of the mirror, then eventually moving on to speaking in front of a small crowd of friends, and finally in front of your trusted classmates or colleagues. You cannot master this at once, so practice is essential in finally overcoming this weakness—or any weakness, for that matter.
2. Brace yourself for failure.
This does not mean anticipating failure in your every venture. Realise that failure is the most beautiful sign that you are actually trying your hand at something. Bracing for failure means being able to accept that failing is part of the journey in improving yourself. You will soon realise that this thing you may dreading the most—failure—will not actually eat you alive nor kill you once you have encountered it firsthand. All it does is arm you with a mighty set of lessons that will help you NOT encounter failure again in the future. The more failures you cross paths with, the more you are ensured that your path will soon smoothen out to attain that much-coveted success.
3. Face your fear.
“The way to develop self-confidence is to do the thing you fear,” says William Jennings Bryan. For instance, have you been postponing the decision to change careers because of fear? Is your self-confidence hopelessly dwindling down because a certain fear is eating at you? While positive self-talk may help, you cannot keep on telling yourself that you can do it without taking some action. When you strip fear of its clothes, it actually is just a pathetic illusion—an illusion that something bad is going to happen when you encounter a particular thing or person, or when you do a challenging task. Over the years that we develop this fear, we irrationally and automatically latch onto “signs” and “proofs” that the fear is real when actually, it is not. What better way to disprove everything your fear tells you than to actually look it in the eye and do the thing it is telling you you’re incapable of doing. You’d be surprised that overcoming that one thing you thought you fear will give you a very deep empowerment and confidence to just go ahead and disprove all your other existing fears. Being able to do something you thought you could not do is the greatest force in developing self-confidence.
All three preparations boil down to one thing—being your own best friend. Know everything there is to know about yourself, and use this knowledge to propel yourself to even greater heights of self-confidence. Once you have an objective image of who you are, an accepting stance for failure, and an adventurous spirit to conquer fears, there is nothing your self-confidence cannot achieve. Strengthening your self-confidence is not an overnight process, so instead of mulling over your strengths and weaknesses, why not get up and put them to the test. Take action now.
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