Bolster Your Self-Confidence

Self-confidence is the foundation upon which success is built, both in the animal world as well as our own. If you have worked with animals often as I have (as a horse trainer), you would understand that in the animal kingdom most species have a definite pecking order whereby the strongest and most dominate of the pack leads. In the animal kingdom, there is no room for leadership positions within flighty or unconfident pack members. This reality doesn't really change when an animal is domesticated, because in effect you are becoming the new pack leader as an animal's owner.

If you think humans are far more enlightened and above this fundamental truth, you would be wrong. Although it's true some particularly brilliant but unconfident individuals can make major contributions to business and/or society, for the most part it is those with abundant levels of self-confidence that rule the roost. It also makes perfect sense when you think about it, because if you don't have confidence in yourself how can you expect anyone else to respect your strength or conviction?

Some people seem to be born with a strong sense of self-confidence – from day one they hold true to the belief that the world is their oyster, and they often convert this confidence into social or business success. Luckily, self-confidence isn't a trait you are either born with or aren't; you can train yourself to become more confident about your abilities and the world in general.

The two keys to building your self-confidence are:

  • A change in mindset. Don't think about everything that can go wrong in your endeavors. Instead, understand that every goal or solicitation will not just fall into place for you, but you never fail unless you stop trying. Think about the positive aspects of success rather than dwell on the potential negatives.
  • Create a series of easily accomplishable smaller tasks and then see them through to the end. Each time you succeed in a task, your confidence will rise. As you accomplish more and more tasks and goals, you will see that you do have the skills to achieve what you set forth to do.

While the two keys above might sound simplistic, sometimes the simplest things in life bring the most benefits. The opposite of self-confidence is fear or shyness, so the way to build confidence in yourself is to slowly expose yourself to that which you dislike. Just as a person overcomes their fear of water by gradually being introduced to the deep end of the pool, a person not sure of him or herself will overcome his/her sense of self-doubt by proving time and time again that yes, they can do whatever it is they wish to do.

It can be scary to take that first leap of faith, but if you make the initial tasks manageable enough, eventually you will see that most of your fears were based on emotion rather than reason or logic. And once you push emotion aside and focus on logic, the path to self-confidence and success becomes somewhat self-evident.