How to Start Believing in Yourself
Believing in yourself is the key factor to creating an environment in your daily life where you can flourish both personally and professionally. When you believe in yourself, your skill set, abilities and self-confidence level will know no bounds. Individuals who believe in themselves have an innate comprehension of the value that they have to offer others in their world. As you continue to move in this “self-belief”, you will grow and develop as a person. In turn, your self-confidence level will enable you to accomplish great things. The more you achieve in your life, the more risks you will take—thus increasing your rewards. This article will address several factors involved in how you can start believing in yourself.
Evaluate Your Abilities & Skill set
The first step involves evaluating who you are as a person in regard to your abilities and skill set. You may never have taken an in-depth look at what you can do and the value you bring to the workplace. As you evaluate your accomplishments, take a look at what abilities and skills brought you to a place of success. You may even discover some hidden talents that you didn’t know you had. After you make a list of your abilities and skills, review each one and own them. You will feel more empowered and receive a boost to your self-confidence level.
Accept Who You Are as an Individual
After step one, your self-confidence level should have risen. Now it is time to begin to accept who you are as an individual. If you cannot accept yourself—as they say, warts and all—you will not be able to fully believe in yourself and achieve your optimal level of success.
Not accepting yourself means that you are rejecting some aspect of your personality, physical appearance or skills and abilities. Much of our self-confidence level (whether high or low) has been developed through our formative years as young children and adolescents. Focus on your positive attributes and learn to accept who you are, making improvements on any negative aspects of your personality or behaviors.
Cultivate a Positive Environment
This step begins with adjusting your perspective so that you focus on the positive areas of your current life situation rather than continuing to focus on the negative aspects. Cultivating a positive mental outlook impacts your daily personal and professional environment. Additionally, you can cultivate this positive environment and begin to believe in yourself by inviting encouragers into your inner circle. For example, don’t spend too much time with negative people. Surrounding yourself with outside negativity will negatively impact your efforts to cultivate a positive environment in your life.
Challenge Yourself Each Day
If you do not continually challenge yourself to become a better person, it will be easy to fall back into negative thought patterns—and then stop believing in yourself. The first part of this step involves challenging yourself each day. For example, seek out opportunities each day where you can grow and develop as a person, both in your personal and professional life. Speak to your manager with regard to your desire to grow and develop in the workplace. Ask to become part of new projects that will challenge you to better yourself. Additionally, continue to cultivate an appetite for learning, whether by attending continuing education classes, reading self-development books or learning from other individuals.
Become Your Own Person
This final step involves setting goals and personal expectations. When you set goals, you are more liable to actually achieve them, than if you hadn’t set any in the first place. Start small with immediate goals, such as beginning to implement the first two steps discussed in this article. Write down your short-term and long-term goals as well. Additionally, evaluate your personal expectations throughout this process.
Remember that you do not have to live up to anyone else’s expectations for your life. Be confident in who you are, your goals and expectations. Finally, do not compare yourself to other people as you journey through this process. Comparing yourself to others will only serve to derail you from your goals. You can only measure yourself against your own goals and expectations.
Source : http://www.careeraddict.com