Understand that everyone was born with a measure of self-confidence. We come into this world with a complete and positive self confidence. An infant has a positive self confidence that their cries will always get them what they need—food, diaper change, cuddling, communication, soothing etc. If a child’s needs are easily met, and the child senses he or she is unconditionally accepted by the family, he or she flourish, and that self confidence in him or her grows on for the rest of his or her life.
However, if the child’s basic needs for survival and emotional sustenance are met sporadically or poorly, their sense of self confidence and self esteem begins to deteriorate.
If the child continues to experience depravation, he or she will begin to view him or herself as not being good enough to be cared for, or cared about. And this eventually goes on throughout their living days, which leads to a life of misery and setbacks because their birth-right to self confidence and self-esteem has been compromised.
The article is a very important tool because it has been written to help restore, and to rebuild what you lost as a child—your self-confidence.
The truth is that you can be a very confident person again. Confidence is natural from birth, and it is also a skill that can be learnt and improved upon.
WHAT IS CONFIDENCE BUILDING?
Confidence building is the ability to gain the inner strength to do something, and then feeling comfortable about using that strength. Confidence also means making a decision, and then acting on that decision.
This virtue is a must-have in your life. It is often the single ingredient that distinguishes a successful person from someone less successful.
Self confidence ultimately creates opportunities for new successes, and with each new successes, another self confidence building block is put into place. Success builds upon success, reinforcing self confidence with each new achievement.
HOW CONFIDENT DO YOU THINK YOU ARE?
Your level of confidence can show in many ways: your behaviour; your body language; how you speak; what you say; how you dress; how you walk through the crowd and so on.
Look at the following comparism of common self confidence behaviours and behaviours associated with a lack of self confidence. You should be able to identify whichever applies to you.
Self confidence
-Doing what you believe to be right even if others mock or criticize you for it.
Low self confidence
-Deciding your behaviour based on what other people think or say.
Self confidence
-Being willing to take risk and go the extra mile to achieve better things.
Low self confidence
-Staying in your comfort zone, fearing failure and avoiding risks.
Self confidence
-Admitting your mistakes and vowing to learn from them.
Low self confidence
-Working hard to cover up your mistakes and denying yourself of the lessons to learn from it.
Self confidence
-Accepting compliment graciously.
Low self confidence
-Dismissing compliment off handedly.
Self confidence
-Looking at people straight in the eyes during conversations.
Low self confidence
-Avoiding eye contact during conversations.
Self confidence
-Speaking up when you should or when asked to.
Low self confidence
-Not able to speak up in a group when you should or when asked to.
You can simply mark yourself to know whether you have a high and positive self confidence or not. Admitting a lack of confidence is a healthy step toward correcting the situation, but it certainly shouldn’t be a stopping point.
7 BUILDING BLOCKS OF SELF CONFIDENCE
The following blocks have been tested and found true through the lives of those who have hit the mark of success and relevance. It is your turn.
1: FIND YOUR TRUE PURPOSE:
You can’t be confident until you have the assurance that you are doing the things that fit your purpose in life. Knowing why you exist and then pursuing it produces energy that births enthusiasm and faith coupled with an undying passion supported by virtue of persistence and perseverance.
2: CATCH A CLEAR VISION:
When you see where you are going to end with your mind’s eye, you naturally begin to display some level of confidence in the reality of it. And since what you see is a so real to you, your confidence grows out from within you. Others may doubt or will doubt but you don’t, because you know what you have seen is going to happen—a vision.
3: ACKOWLEDGE YOUR WORTH AND VALUE
You can not be a confident person if you don’t perceive yourself to be valuable, respectful and important. You must believe in yourself and accept your uniqueness before your strong confidence can be correctly built. See yourself as God sees you.
4: ACKNOWLEDGE YOUR UNIQUE GIFTS, ABILITIES AND STRENGTHS
You have to think thoroughly and point out all the uncommon and unique abilities and gifts inside you. These are great inputs to a strong, and positive self confidence. Every human being has been created with a measure of gifts, abilities, skills and strengths. Discover yours. What do you do with so much ease, while others struggle all day? What are the things you do with so much excitement and perfection? At what is your effectiveness maximized?
List out as many as you possess.
5: EXAMINE YOUR TRACK-RECORDS
What have you done in the past that has brought you some measure of appreciation, recognition, joy and fulfillment? There is no doubt that you have succeeded in certain endeavors before now. There were some huddles you jumped over successfully. There were some victories you have won, and there were certain goals you set long ago, which you have achieved.
Re-examine your past achievements, and successes. If you could achieve all those then, what makes you think you can do much more now? If you spoke before an audience of twenty people last year, that become an energy booster when asked to speak before an audience of thirty people this year.
What this building block does for you now, is that, it revitalizes and re-energies you to pursue greater accomplishments than you have ever done before. Your past success experiences and track records are important to the development of your self confidence.
6: KNOWLEDGE ACQUISITION
All confident people are men and women who know what others don’t know. Knowledge is therefore a vital factor in the building of a good self confidence. You cannot be confident in what you know nothing about. Your knowledge-base in any field of endeavour will either improve or kill your confidence. But, first get knowledge about your purpose; your vision; your identity and your gifts.
Seek out for relevant information in your field of purpose , vision, gifts, abilities, study or endeavour. Become an addicted reader. This is very important so that when you find yourself in a group where your contribution is required, you would be able to provide your quota without fear or trembling. Many are not confident because they are ignorant of something they should know.
7: HAVE A POSITIVE ATTITUDE TO LIFE
A positive attitude will enhance your confidence level due to the fact that your behaviours and actions will not be a reaction to your circumstances, or the opinion of people, but, they will be stimulated by a personal decision to do what is right, and positive always. With this kind of attitude, you are not at the mercies of those around you to make you feel good about yourself. You have a positive outlook on life. You see things differently in a way that favours you, and not with a negative mind-set that results in defeat.
