"Positivity, confidence, and persistence are key in life, so never give up on yourself."
--- Khalid
One of the most consistent traits found in all successful business people is their undying confidence. They are always confident in achieving their goals even when things are looking bleak. It's not that they are cocky or boastful, (well some of them are), but their boastfulness is sometimes what gives them their confidence. In other words, when they are not fully confident in their ability to achieve a particular goal, they tend to fake it till they make it.
Confidence isn't something you either have or you don't. Some may be born with a level of confidence, but confidence is that something that comes with practice. It is needed in the heat of the moment and the more heated moments we have, the more opportunities we are given to strengthen our confidence levels. Confidence is also fed by successes. Even the smallest successes can help build confidence to achieve more and thus gain more confidence. We all need confidence to grow our businesses and succeed on any stage in our industry.
"You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You are able to say to yourself, 'I lived through this horror. I can take the next thing that comes along.'"
--- Eleanor Roosevelt
A true confidence killer though is choosing not to face a particular challenge head-on. When we try to avoid a problem or even look for ways around it, we begin to ding our confidence level. But the opposite is also true. When we force ourselves to dive in and tackle the beast, whatever it is that is in our way, our confidence level ramps up. We have more than enough for the next challenge that comes our way.
"Believe in yourself! Have faith in your abilities! Without a humble but reasonable confidence in your own powers you cannot be successful or happy."
--- Norman Vincent Peale
The first act of building self-confidence is to truly believe in your own powers. This alone is one of the biggest obstacles to increasing confidence levels in most people. Whether from childhood experiences, such as with parents, siblings, or classmates putting you down, telling you can't do something, or other experiences where a failure or two dampened your confident spirit, many people just don't possess self-confidence.
"Inaction breeds doubt and fear. Action breeds confidence and courage. If you want to conquer fear, do not sit home and think about it. Go out and get busy."
--- Dale Carnegie
But to counter a lack of self-confidence only takes a few victories and victories require action. When you encounter a business problem or challenge, the best way to conquer fear and gain a lot of self-confidence is to face the giant (challenge), and move toward it, rather than away from it. Fake being confident if you have to, but whatever you do, move. Get heading in the direction of the problem and take action-any action, and like a snowball rolling down a hill, you will pick up self-confidence along the way to solving the issue.
"When you have confidence, you can have a lot of fun. And when you have fun, you can do amazing things."
--- Joe Namath
Fear is at the root of a lack of self-confidence. From this day forward, let's so no to fear. It's been said that the things most people fear or worry about never really happens anyway, so why waste our time with it. Pastor Chuck Swindoll has said that, "Worry is like a rocking chair, it is fun to do, but doesn't get you anywhere." As business people, we want, and need to get places, so let's cut worry and fear out of our lives today and start having fun with confident decision-making so we too can accomplish amazing things.
