Self-Confidence: It Is Earned by Taking Action

“The reputation you have with yourself - your self-esteem - is the single most important factor for a fulfilling life.”—Nathaniel Branden

If you lack confidence and you have been running yourself down for a while, it is time to overturn the tide. 

Learn and apply the tip to becoming more confident and see what happens in your life.

Confidence is the inner believe in your ability to win out of anything you are confronted with. This core faith can come from the fact that you have done very well before in handling something similar—or something equally challenging.

Confidence is the knowing that if we could manage to succeed at one time before, we can invariably try and succeed again, this time, as James Allen writes in his classic book, ‘As a Man Thinketh’ that: 

“The will to do springs from the knowledge that we can do.” 

We earn confidence through action. Regular action, however small is a great builder of self-esteem. Therefore, the secret to earning confidence is to do and succeed at something first. And the way to guarantee that foundational success is to cut our coat according to our size. 

We can only win when we believe we will win; we can’t achieve what we don’t truly believe we can accomplish. So to be sure of success, set a goal that is fairly easy for you to reach, reach it, and then repeat the process over and over again, increasing the scope of your dare, a little bit, each time. And as you do, your confidence will grow.

When you act the part, you become the part. Success builds confidence and confidence in turn builds success. This powerful feedback loop is what great people understand and employ to rise above the commonplace. 

And Mark Victor Hansen, the author of ‘the Chicken Soup for the Soul,’ inspires you to get in the game when he writes:  “Get started now. With each step you take, you will grow stronger and stronger, more and more skilled, more and more self-confident.” 

Finally, what one area do you think you can direct your effort to start improving your confidence, going forward? This is after all, the bottom line of your search.