7 habits to cultivate self-confidence

People who have high self-confidence are more successful in the tasks they have to carry out and, on many occasions, in life in general. This psychological variable can be confused with self-esteem, but they are not the same.

That is why these individuals overcome adversity because they feel capable of it, and they achieve work or life goals because they perceive that they are capable of doing so. Their motivation remains high and they are able to make the right decisions even in the most complex moments.

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Self-confidence is key to personal development

Many people often confuse self-confidence with self-esteem. But self-esteem is related to the global assessment that a person makes of himself, it is a general feeling, and refers to esteem, that is, how much a person loves and appreciates.

Instead, the self-confidence refers to the confidence that a person has in their abilities with respect to a certain task. It has to do with the competences and abilities, and the beliefs that a person has about the mastery of these

. For example, if a salesperson knows that he does a good job as a salesperson, he will surely have greater confidence when it comes to persuading a customer, since he believes that he is good at it.

Self-confidence refers to a specific area of ​​our life, unlike self-esteem, which is a global concept. The salesperson in the previous example, therefore, will have high self-confidence when doing his job, but may have low self-confidence when having a partner.

Habits and actions to cultivate self-confidence

In the following lines you can find a series of tips that will allow you to cultivate your confidence in yourself.

1. Praise yourself

One of the best ways to repeat behaviors is through reinforcement. Compliments are a good way to remind yourself of how well you've done things, and they're a powerful form of verbal persuasion, which according to Albert bandura It is one of the elements that influence self-confidence. Therefore, giving more importance to the things that go well for you and minimizing the impact of negative things can positively influence self-confidence. To do this, acceptance is key.

2. Have a positive attitude

Obviously, it is not always possible to have a positive attitude, but, following the previous point, we must make an effort to see the good things in life. Stopping comparing yourself with others and starting to value your abilities in a positive way has a great influence on how you perceive the challenges that are presented to you on a daily basis.

In fact, having low or weak self-confidence is associated with negative thoughts and failure, so we must adopt the opposite mentality. We should try to be motivated most of the time, even if it costs sometimes.

3. Have successful models

Albert Bandura, one of the most important theorists of this concept, explained in his sociocultural theory the reason why We learn by observation and how some people have a great influence on our behavior, and also on our self-confidence.

In fact, this author thinks that observing other people doing successful activities has a great influence on our own self-confidence. Modeling is a technique widely used in coaching, which is a key methodology for people's personal development.

4. Accept the past

The acceptance of our own experiences and ourselves not only positively influences our well-being Y emotional balance, but also in confidence in ourselves. If when things go wrong we recreate in them, it is possible that we have a negative perception of ourselves and our abilities to cope with a certain activity.

On the other hand, if in the face of failures we adopt an acceptance mentality and understand that mistakes are part of our life, our self-confidence need not be adversely affected in these situations.

5. test yourself

Albert Bandura believes that another element that influences self-confidence is acting. If we dare to do something and it turns out well, our self-confidence improves. Positive experiences are essential for the perception of our abilities to be positive.

As I mentioned in the previous point, when things do not go well it is better to accept them and move on. Since experiences are a great source of information for self-confidence, and perhaps the most importantly, it is always better to test yourself, because we can only regret what we have not done.

6. Remember your achievements

Accepting negative experiences acts as protection and maintains self-confidence in a safe zoneHowever, it is also important to remind ourselves that there are things that we do very well.

This can be done by making a list of achievements, which we can use as often as we like to remind ourselves of our strengths and our achieved goals. Without a doubt, a useful strategy for times when we feel less motivated.

7. Prepare well

When we do not have much confidence in ourselves regarding a specific situation, we can always prepare well, as this can improve the perception of self-confidence. For example, we may not be proficient enough in a subject to give a presentation in college. However, if we prepare it well in advance and inform ourselves appropriately, It is possible that at the time of exposing that topic our confidence has increased.