Don’t let a simple lack of confidence keep you from succeeding. Take action boldly! Don’t doubt yourself! Here are seven tips to help you gain the confidence you need to succeed:
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Are you holding yourself back because of low confidence? Do you spend a lot of time “in your head” worrying, regretting, putting yourself down, and wishing things were different? Do you stop yourself from taking advantage of opportunities and reaching the success of which you know you are capable? Without confidence, you will never venture out of your comfort zone.
When you have a healthy level of confidence, you can be your best you. Confidence is a belief in your ability to succeed – a belief that stimulates action. Self-esteem refers to your opinion of yourself, how well you value yourself, and the power you allow yourself to have. Everything you think and say and do affects your confidence and self-esteem. The good news is that you have control over what you think, say and do.
Some of my favorite tips for increasing confidence include:
Start taking action.
The Nike SWOOSH invites action with the slogan, “Just Do It!” It doesn’t need to be perfect. Just Do It! When you take action, you achieve successes that build more confidence which encourages you to achieve even more successes! When I was working on my Ph.D., Dr. Pat Heim told me that the “D” stands for “Done.” I decided to get it “Done” and developed a mantra of “Focus & Finish.” Don’t let being perfect get in the way of being good
Own your success.
Women need to take a page from the men’s playbook and own their success. When men accomplish great things, they are usually able to take credit for it without hesitating. When women accomplish great things, they often say they got “lucky” or “it wasn’t very difficult to begin with.” Men often recognize the benefits of confidence and start to practice it early on. In fact, many men value confidence as much as competence.
Monitor your self-talk.
We are born with only two fears: fear of falling and fear of loud noises. All other fears are developed during our lifetime. Let’s get rid of those manufactured fears! The great actor John Wayne once said, “Courage is being afraid but saddling up anyway.” Another favorite quote is from Wayne Gretzky, the great Canadian ice hockey player, “You miss every shot you don’t take.” Unfortunately, most of your self-talk (77%) is negative. When you hear yourself using negative self-talk, consider saying, “Thanks for your input, but I’m not interested!” Another suggestion is to wear a rubber band on your wrist and snap it when your self-talk turns negative.
Read More: 7 Tips To Gain The Confidence You Need To Succeed | Forbes |http://bit.ly/2fSlDQC