Without this perspective on confidence, insecurity festers and fears form.
6 Things You Can Do Now to Grow More Confident
1. Be Hyper Honest With Yourself.
It can be challenging to receive feedback, mainly because we focus on the criticisms and pass off complements. However, feedback is a primary tool for growth, and growth is a primary driver of future confidence. When someone offers feedback, listen and learn what you can. Don’t see their feedback as a judgment of your worth, but only of your performance.
Also, pay more attention to compliments. Complements are perhaps your best tool for understanding your strengths. When you blow off a compliment, you miss an opportunity to learn about yourself.
Question: How are you intentionally or unintentionally deceiving yourself?
2. Take More Risks.
Failure isn’t your enemy. Fearing failure is what truly cripples people. Every wildly successful person has been afraid. Yet, they continued working and taking risks along the way. Successful people take risks, allow for failure, and remain confident that growth is as positive as success.
Failure is inevitable when you try new things. But failure highlights growth opportunities, making failure a positive opportunity for better future results. In a way, confidence is becoming comfortable in situations that would make most people feel uncomfortable.
Question: What is one small, uncomfortable risk you can take this week?
3. Surround Yourself With Positive People.
Take a moment and think about how your friends make you feel. Do your friends lift you up, or do they bring you down? Are they constantly judging you, or do they accept you for who you are?
The people you spend time with influence your thoughts and attitudes about yourself. Even the people who claim they don’t care about others’ opinions care on some level. To care is proof of our humanity. If the people around you tear down others, they’ll bring you down, too.
Question: What do those closest to you add to your life?
4. Set Clear Goals.
Many people do not set goals for fear they’ll not accomplish the goal. That’s living out your personal self-fulfilling prophecy. Setting goals is essential for gaining confidence. Goals fuel growth. When you achieve a goal, you gain results-oriented confidence. When you fail at a goal, you create space to learn and try again.
The best way to reach your goals, big or small, is to break them into smaller goals while monitoring your progress. Monitoring progress is the secret to goal success. Whether you’re trying to get promoted, get a better job, get into graduate school, change careers, eat healthier, or lose 10 pounds, the best way to know if you’re making progress is to monitor it.
