Confidence is the cornerstone of leadership. If you don’t believe in yourself, how can others believe in you? Your skills are useful only if you are confident enough to showcase them in front of the people. Feeling underconfident or being conscious in saying or doing something in front of a crowd of thousands or just a few people is something which is faced by everyone atleast once in their lifetime in different situations. But it is very important to overcome that, and don’t let it dominate your skills and abilities.
1. Overcome Self-limiting Beliefs
When we are a kid, we dream of anything without thinking whether we can do this or not. Without doubting are abilities we just start finding ways to accomplish it. But as we grow up, in betweenthe period of childhood to adulthood we start believing on the beliefs of our surroundings on what is possible and what is impossible. What we can do and what we can’t do. Somehow we also start believing in it, ignoring our dreams and abilities.
Ways to overcome this:-
Find your limits by exposing yourself to different situations and pushing through the uncomfortable. Once you have confidence in yourself, you’ll be amazed what you can accomplish.
2. Don’t Get Confused between Memory and Facts
Our memory never takes any information as it is presented to us. Instead we just extract the gyst of the incident or experience and store it in our mind in the ways which makes most sense to us. This is why many people attending the same event have different versions of it.
Your brain has a built-in confirmation bias. That means it stores information that is consistent with your own beliefs, values and self-image. This selective memory system helps keep the brain from getting overloaded with too much information.
Sometimes it works against us. For example, if you have low self- esteem your brain tends to store information that confirms your lack of confidence. That will be all you remember about a specific event.
Ways to overcome this:-
Discuss your version of experience and story with other people who witnessed the same event and might have different perspective and try to understand that. Revisit the facts of the event.
3. Talk to Yourself
This may sound crazy but the way we talk to ourself or treat ourself have a huge impact on us. Talking to yourself can make you smarter, improve your memory, help you focus and even increase athletic performance. This helps you in overcoming your fears.
You can use this technique in motivating yourself. This makes you mentally tough and strong. It provides you the courage of pushing your limits.
Ways to make it work for you:-
Talk to yourself politely. Be positive, because the way you talk to yourself influences your neurobiological response to it. When you say, I know what to do here or see things as a challenge rather than a problem, you’ve turned your response into a positive one
4. Raise your Curiosity Level
Curiosity is an important trait for anyone who wants to be confident and successful. Curiosity is the foundation of life long growth. Curiosity encourage you to investigate and know about new things happening around you.
If we remain curious, we remain teachable and our minds and hearts grow larger every day. We can retain our beginner’s mind by always looking forward and discovering new experiences and uncovering new information.
Ways to make it work for you:-
Be more observant about people around you and their work. Try to know about it. It opens up new worlds and possibilities and creates an adventurous response that leads you in a new direction.
5. Overcome Self- Doubt.
If you lack self- confidence and self-esteem, you will always feel like, you are dependent on someone else’s mercy which makes you doubt your own skills and abilities.
When you assume a victim mentality, you are no longer resilient to life’s inevitable obstacles and roadblocks. We start underestimating our abilities to do something more than others.
Ways to make it work for you:-
No one but you are stopping yourself from achieving what you want to accomplish. It’s time to identify the areas in which you doubt yourself and remove those barriers. Overcome self-doubt and grab all the opportunities you get in your way.
Self- confidence is the key to success in life. It’s very important to believe in yourself to achieve your dreams. Follow these steps to feel confident about yourself.
