How To Increase Self-Confidence In 6 Steps

Self-confidence (self-confidence) is necessary for you to achieve the goals you set for yourself and is key to your well-being, as it is intimately related to self-esteem.

People who have confidence in themselves manage to develop their life projects or professional projects, because they are individuals who know how to take certain risks, make difficult decisions and are exceptionally resilient, in the sense that they know how to cope with the challenges that life throws at them.

Self-confidence and self-esteem are not the same

Many people think that self-confidence and self-esteem are the same.

Despite the fact that both notions are linked, they are distinct phrases with distinct implications.

Self-confidence is the appreciation of the abilities you possess and focusing on the beliefs you have regarding the ability and ability to succeed in a given context. While self-esteem is the general feeling of how valuable you are as a whole and refers to the appreciation you have for yourself.

If this difference has not been clear to you, imagine a salesperson or salesperson who knows that he does his job very well. He has no doubt about his great ability to seduce customers and knows that he has the gift of people that not everyone has. Thanks to this, he performs his work perfectly, so he fully trusts himself when it comes to performing this task.

Now, this person has low self-esteem, because when he comes home after a long day of work, he thinks: "I do not have a partner, nor can I save enough money to buy a house. "I'm a flop." As you can see, he believes in himself and is confident in his abilities as a commercial.

Now, he is not comfortable with himself, and regardless of whether this assessment he makes is the correct one or not, the overall image he has about himself is negative.

Self-confidence: the theory of self-efficacy

Albert Bandura, one of the main theorists of self-confidence, developed his idea of self-efficacy (which is basically equivalent to self-confidence) as part of his Social Learning Theory.

His research on the social learning of human beings allowed him to identify other cognitive components that facilitate the process of change and influence the formation of intentions and motivational self-regulation. One of these components is perceived self-efficacy or the perception of self-confidence.

According to Bandura, there are four components to developing self-confidence:

Execution achievements: past experiences are the most important source of self-confidence information, as they allow you to verify the real domain.

Vicarious experience or observation: refers to modelling, that is, seeing (or imagining) other people successfully executing certain activities

Verbal persuasion: Verbal persuasion is important, especially for those people who already trust themselves and need only a little more confidence to make an extra effort and achieve success.

Physiological state of the individual: Individuals usually interpret states of great anxiety as signs of weakness or poor performance. On the other hand, humour or positive emotional states will also have an impact on how one will interpret experiences.

How do improve self-confidence?

But what steps can you take to improve self-confidence? Below we propose a list of 6 steps to improve your self-confidence:

1. Live situations in a positive way

As you can see, for Bandura, verbal persuasion is a very important element in the development of self-confidence. Therefore, be positive even if you are going through a period in which you feel that things do not go as you want. Instead, of focusing on difficulties, put your energy into finding answers and making positive changes.

Low self-confidence is frequently linked to feelings of failure and negative ideas that act as a barrier between you and your objectives. If you are constantly repeating to yourself that you are not up to the task, the only thing you will get is the "self-fulfilling prophecy". So, even in unpleasant moments, self-motivated.

2. Be prepared

It may happen, for example, that you have to make a presentation in college and notice that you do not have enough confidence in yourself. In this type of case, what really works is to prepare the presentation well so that, when the day comes, you fully trust your possibilities.

Another example may be that you have started working in front of the public, and as part of your work, you have to give a welcome speech to customers. Since you've never done this kind of homework, you may not have full self-confidence. In this case, you can prepare the speech well, and, in this way, you will feel comfortable and safe in front of customers.

Whatever is on your list of goals, being well prepared and feeling like you're mastering what you do increases your self-confidence.

3. Make a list of what you've already accomplished and remind yourself of it

As in the first point, difficult moments can make you doubt and cause your self-confidence to be diminished. Life is full of changes, and staying on top of them can be difficult at times. In cases like this, it is ideal to have a list of what you have achieved so far regarding the goal you have, because visualizing your progression can help you motivate yourself in complicated moments.

4. Take action

The engine of self-confidence is action: if you dare to act, then you gain in self-confidence. Bandura, in his theory of self-efficacy, speaks to us of "execution achievements", that is, experiences constitute the most important source of self-confidence information.

It's possible that you're already visualising failure before you act.

Well, remember: if you don't act, you lose 100% of the chances to achieve what you want.

5. Accept any past failures

Well, execution achievements are the perception we have ourselves of our victories and failures. By perception I mean your assessment of the events that have happened. If it has gone wrong, you have to accept it and also see the small successes, which surely there are, even in failures.

Self-confidence only develops if we manage to overcome the obstacles that we put ourselves: on the one hand, renunciation (which has to do with acting), and on the other hand, criticism.

6. Observe successful people

Bandura's theory of self-efficacy states that vicarious experience or observation is another key element of self-confidence. Observing or imagining other people carrying out certain activities successfully, can positively influence self-confidence.