The above requires you to develop confidence. That may seem scary to you. However, it’s not as difficult as you think. No one is born with confidence. It is something people learn and develop during their lives. It’s the same for you. Start small. Take steps to develop your confidence and trusting yourself will become easy.
Fear is the biggest obstacle to confidence. When you give in to your fears (or to someone else’s), you diminish all possibility of building up your confidence. That will worsen if you don’t handle it quickly. You must face your fears head-on.
That doesn’t mean you should throw caution to the wind and be reckless. Scripture tells you to count the cost. Be wise. You should take chances, but only if they won’t put your life or others’ lives in danger. You would not jump out of a plane without a parachute. Don’t make frivolous decisions, either. Confidence is about knowing the difference.
Start out with small tasks that you have been afraid to try in the past. Most outcomes will turn out better than you imagine. If you try to project what will happen, and it is always a negative outcome, you will never make any decisions. Take on those small tasks without thinking too much about what’s going to happen. Put it on your calendar, set an alert on your phone or computer, then when that alert sounds, just do that thing you’ve been scared to try. That will build up your confidence as you’ve never seen before.
You should ask questions when you aren’t sure about the situations you face. Confidence is not about having all the answers. It’s about knowing where to find them and who to rely on with the knowledge that you need. It’s also about pulling the trigger when you have gathered enough information.
Confidence is about taking responsibility for your decisions and your actions. If you believe in what you are doing, you validate that belief to others who may be affected by your decisions. If you start blaming others when your situation doesn’t go as planned, you will be seen as being weak. Once this happens, others will lose faith in you. That will cause your confidence to erode and allow self-doubt to take over. When you make your decisions, own them, even if they don’t work out.
When you increase your confidence, you will automatically increase trusting yourself. Then, you can accomplish more than you ever imagined and lead others to do the same.
This is an updated edition of a post originally published on Living Forward.
Featured Image by Towfiqu barbhuiya on Unsplash
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