Last Updated on April 27, 2017 by Bharat Saini
Confidence can be described as a belief in one’s ability to succeed. Confident people have a profound impact on everyone they encounter only because they exert so much influence within themselves. They innovate, speak their mind, and propel themselves forward toward bigger and better things. One has to strike a healthy balance, as with too much of confidence one can stumble into unforeseen obstacles, but having too little can prevent one from taking risks and seizing opportunities in life, in school, at work and beyond. It’s a labour of love that confident people pursue behind the scenes, every single day.
Self confidence is the foundation of all great success and achievement. Self-confident people are admired by others and inspire confidence in others. They face their fears head-on and tend to be risk takers. They know that no matter what obstacles come their way, they have the ability to get past them. Self-confident people tend to see their lives in a positive light even when things aren’t going so well, and they are typically satisfied with and respect themselves. With some time and practice you too can be a self-confident person, both inside and out, whom others admire but this is not an overnight phenomenon. The focused pursuit of truly confident people is driven by some of the following habits that you can emulate, practice and master:
- Speak with Certainty: Confident people speak assertively because they know that it’s difficult to get people to listen to you if you can’t deliver your ideas with conviction.
- Seek out Small Victories:Confident people like to challenge themselves and compete, even when their efforts yield small victories. When you have a series of small victories, the boost in your confidence can last for months.
- Don’t Seek Attention: Confident people know that being yourself is much more effective than trying to prove that you’re important. People are turned off by those who are desperate for attention. Confident people are masters of attention diffusion. When they’re receiving attention for an accomplishment, they quickly shift the focus to all the people who worked hard to help get them there. They don’t crave approval or praise because they draw their self-worth from within.
- Bring the Right Attitude: Confident people always seem to bring the right attitude. People catch on to your attitude quickly and are more attracted to the right attitude than what, or how many, people you know.
- Don’t Pass Judgment:Confident people don’t pass judgment on others because they know that everyone has something to offer, and they don’t need to take other people down a notch in order to feel good about themselves. Comparing yourself to other people is limiting.
- Get Happiness from Within: People who brim with confidence derive their sense of pleasure and satisfaction from their own accomplishments, as opposed to what other people think of their accomplishments. Happiness is a critical element of confidence, because in order to be confident in what you do, you have to be happy with whom you are.
- Listen More than Speak:Confident people listen more than they speak because they don’t feel as though they have anything to prove, knowing that by actively listening and paying attention to others, they are much more likely to learn and grow. Instead of seeing interactions as opportunities to prove themselves to others, they focus on the interaction itself, because they know that this is a far more enjoyable and productive approach to people.
- Take Risks:When confident people see an opportunity, they take it, instead of worrying about what could go wrong, they go for it. Fear doesn’t hold them back because they know that if they never try, they will never succeed.
- Celebrate Other’s Successes: Confident people aren’t worried about their relevance because they draw their self-worth from within. Instead of insecurely focusing inward, confident people focus outward, this allows them to see all the wonderful things that other people bring to the table. Praising people for their contributions is a natural result of this.
Building confidence is a journey, not a destination. To become more confident you must be passionate in your pursuit of a greater future. Being self-confident can lead to greater success and happiness in life while having low self-confidence can have a damaging effect on your mental health, relationships, and career.