“One important key to success is self-confidence.
An important key to self-confidence is preparation.”
By now you must be familiar with the importance of self-confidence.
Confidence plays a vital part in writing any success stories. It’s virtually impossible to win without confidence. Below are 5 simple steps that can help you prepare yourself towards a confident and successful you:
- Develop your strengths: Know your strengths and weaknesses. What are the areas in which you have knowledge and what are the ones in which you need to gather more information. Speak about the things you know for sure. If you don’t know politely apologize. There is no need to be ashamed of not knowing some topics because in this world it’s impossible to know everything. We are most confident when we know what we are speaking about. So be sure to know your skill inside out and be ready to speak about it.
- Recap the past – This is a very effective NLP technique used to create a sense of confidence in individuals.
Think about a situation that makes you nervous. Call is situation X. Now remember the time when you were successful. Call it situation Y. See how you reacted in that situation. What were the sounds you heard when you enjoyed this confidence? How were you feeling in that moment of confidence? Now think you are feeling the same level of confidence in this new situation. How will you react in situation X that could make you feel the same level of confidence as situation Y?
Repeat this exercise at least 10 times daily for the next few days and you would notice new patterns of confidence being installed in your life.
3. Fake it till you make it – If you say I don’t know how to feel confident, ask yourself – As if I know. Think carefully – as if I know how to react then what would be my body posture, how I would stand once I am confident, how my shoulders and spine posture will be. Then remember how will your facial expression be when you are in the confident state. Finally change your thought from negative to positive!
4. Be ok with saying No and hearing No– its ok not to know what you don’t want as long as you know what you don’t want. Be comfortable to say/hear no and you will be confident in circumstances where you are currently feeling anxiety. This will also help you in accepting yourself as you are and not seek for approvals/permissions to do something.
5. Accept compliments with gratitude– Most people struggle when it comes to gracefully accepting complements. Some even end up taking compliments negatively as if someone is trying to make fun of them. This is a clear indication of low self-esteem and self-confidence. By refusing to accept compliments, you are showing other people how they need to treat you. Instead, learn to accept the compliment gracefully and politely and smilingly thank the person who appreciated you for your efforts. What you stress on increases. So, stress on the positive compliments and soon you would find that the people who appreciate you have increased much more than you could have asked for.
Work on your confidence level as much as possible and win the world with your smile.
