What is self-confidence?

Self-confidence means trusting in yourself or believing that you can actually accomplish something successfully. Self-confidence also means believing in yourself, and accepting your flaws, in view to becoming better. Believing in your abilities is the most important trait towards greatness. People say if you don’t believe in yourself don’t expect others to believe in you. If you want to be great in whatever you are doing or to achieve any goals you have to start by believing in yourself that you can do it. I remember a book by the Late Dr. Reginald Mengi titled ‘I can, I will, I must‘. This book is mostly dwelling on how self-confidence can take you far. By just saying I can you start generating efforts towards the work.

Why is it important to be self-confident?

1. Self-confidence increases motivation to do big things: when you have self-confidence it motivates you to do big things compared to someone with low confidence who feel defeated all the time.
2. Self-confidence is for those thinking beyond or outside the box. Self-confidence has the ability to make you wider in thinking and hence wider in doing.
3. It helps you gain the trust of others: when you are confident and you believe in yourself, others will also believe in you. It is a common understanding that people want to assign responsibilities to someone whom they think can actually accomplish them and not the one who wants to try. Thus, self-confidence makes you fit for the race. Self-confidence is a competitive edge as it activates trust from others.
4. Self-confidence helps you make the right decisions at the right times. Sometimes in life, we get to the point where we face challenges where we find ourselves stuck and don’t know what to do. At such a point, if you have low confidence in yourself you will make wrong choices and make things even harder than before. If you believe in yourself it is easy to make the right and timely decision than those with low confidence in themselves.
5. Self-confidence governs good leadership: As we commonly know that leadership is all about making followers. It is hard to attract followers if yourself is not confident. A group led by a less confident leader is open to getting lost compared to a group led by a confident leader who is able to make tough decisions. Low-confident leaders can give up quickly and can not withstand arguments.
6. Self-confidence reduces anxiety and fear: Feeling fearful and anxious is open to failure. Thus people without confidence are most prone to failure. Learn to accept yourself if you want to be successful.
7. Self-confidence brings joy and security: someone with self-confidence is always happy because he or she gets to see the world in its true meaning compared to less confident counterparts. The ability to see the world in its true meaning opens up opportunities and instills zeal and energy.
8. Self-confidence is also a negotiation tool. In doing successful business you need to be able to make up your point. Negotiation can be in price setting, contract negotiation, and the like.

How do we improve self-confidence?

1. learn to say NO. The ability to say No when required cultivates a self-confidence attitude as it shows that one knows what he/she wants and why. Otherwise, one will keep on working on other people’s interests and progress against his.
2. Set some goals, and steps that you need to take to achieve those goals as this can keep your focus. Start with setting even small goals that will make you start moving and improve your confidence step by step.
3. Recognize your previous achievements. Think of anything that you have achieved before and remind yourself how you did it. Knowing that you had made some achievements previously will remind you of your ability to do things. Thereafter, you will be starting to build self-confidence.
4. Get involved with people who have made progress in life. Learn from successful people and dig into how self-confidence helped them to move forward. Talk to such people and follow them step by step.

Conclusion

The capacity for self-confidence is a powerful tool that can help us achieve greatness. It is essential to recognize our own strengths, talents, and abilities, and to take ownership of our decisions and our lives. With strong self-confidence, we can take on any challenge, reach our goals, and live a life of success and fulfillment. Self-confidence is the key to unlocking our potential and achieving greatness.

By Deodatus Robert Mgembe