7 Habits And Actions To Cultivate Self-confidence
People who have high self-confidence are more successful in the tasks they have to carry out and, on many occasions, in life in general. This psychological variable can be confused with self-esteem, but they are not the same.
That is why these individuals overcome adversity because they feel qualified to do so, and they achieve work or life goals because they perceive that they are capable of doing so. Their motivation remains high and they are able to make correct decisions even in the most complex moments.
Many people often confuse self-confidence with self-esteem. But self-esteem is related to the global assessment that a person makes of himself, it is a general feeling, and refers to esteem, that is, how much a person loves and appreciates himself.
On the other hand, self-confidence refers to the confidence that a person has in their abilities regarding a given task. It has to do with the competencies and skills, and the beliefs that a person has about mastering them. For example, if a salesperson knows that he does a good job as a salesperson, he will surely have greater confidence when persuading a client, since he believes that he is good at doing it.
Self-confidence refers to a specific area of our life, unlike self-esteem, which is a global concept. The salesperson in the previous example, therefore, will have high self-confidence when it comes to doing his job, but he may have low self-confidence when it comes to having a partner.
In the following lines you can find a series of tips that will allow you to cultivate self-confidence.
1. Praise yourself
One of the best ways to repeat behaviors is thanks to reinforcement. Praise is a good way to remind yourself how well you have done things, and it is a powerful form of verbal persuasion, which according to Albert Bandura is one of the elements that influence self-confidence. Therefore, giving more importance to the things that go well for you and minimizing the impact of negative things can positively influence self-confidence. To do this, acceptance is key.
2. Have a positive attitude
Obviously, it is not always possible to have a positive attitude, but, following the previous point, we must make an effort to see the good things in life. Stop comparing yourself to others and start valuing your abilities positively has a great influence on how you perceive the challenges that arise on a daily basis.
In fact, Having low or weak self-confidence is associated with negative thoughts and thoughts of failure, so we must adopt the opposite mentality. We must try to be motivated most of the time, even if it is sometimes difficult.
3. Have successful models
Albert Bandura, one of the most important theorists of this concept, explained in his sociocultural theory the reason why we learn by observation and how some people have a great influence on our behavior, and also on our self-confidence.
In fact, this author thinks that observing other people doing successful activities has a great influence on our own self-confidence. Modeling is a technique widely used in coaching, which is a key methodology for people’s personal development.
Acceptance of our own experiences and ourselves not only positively influences our well-being. and emotional balance, but also in self-confidence. If when things go wrong we dwell on them, it is possible that we have a negative perception of ourselves and our abilities to cope with a certain activity.
On the other hand, if when faced with failures we adopt a mentality of acceptance and understand that mistakes are part of our life, our self-confidence does not have to be negatively affected in these situations.
5. Challenge yourself
Albert Bandura believes that another element that influences self-confidence is acting. If we dare to do something and it turns out well, our self-confidence improves. Positive experiences are essential for the perception of our capabilities to be positive.
As I mentioned in the previous point, when things don’t go well it is better to accept them and move on. Since experiences are a great source of information for self-confidence, and perhaps the most important, it is always better to test ourselves, since we can only regret what we have not done.
6. Remember your achievements
Accepting negative experiences acts as protection and keeps self-confidence in a safe zone However, it is also important to remind ourselves that there are things we do very well.
This can be done by creating a list of achievements, which we can use as often as we want to remind ourselves of our strengths and our achieved goals. Without a doubt, a useful strategy for times when we feel less motivated.
7. Prepare well
When we do not have much confidence in ourselves regarding a specific situation, we can always prepare well, as this can improve the perception of self-confidence. For example, we may not master a topic well enough to give a presentation at university. However, if we prepare it sufficiently in advance and inform ourselves appropriately, It is possible that at the time of exposing this topic our confidence has increased.
