How to Develop Self-Confidence

So far in this series, we’ve talked about the power of prayer, the value of self-esteem, and the topic of self-sufficiency, which is the ability to go after your goals without being held back by depression, anxiety, or dependency.

These 3 topics form a starting point — a foundation — upon which the structure of unlimited success is built.

Today, I want to talk a little about self-confidence.

As you may recall, one of the 3 critical factors responsible for effective prayer is faith. You may also recall that faith is another word for belief, expectation, and — you guessed it — confidence.

And if you’ve been following along, you may already know that two ways to develop confidence include using affirmations that reflect the confidence you want to feel, and visualizing yourself being confident in various situations.

So let’s explore something else.

An idea I mentioned in the article about self-esteem was to find little successes you could use to feel better about yourself.

It’s one thing to visualize yourself successfully accomplishing a goal, and another thing to actually do it.

Granted, visualization goes a long way towards convincing your inner mind that you can do it. But once you’ve actually done it, your confidence in doing it again skyrockets.

Now, I’m going to assume that your goal is to do more than pick up a toothpick or some other nonsense, and that you strive to do something significant, perhaps something you’ve never done before.

In this case, you may not be able to just go out and do it, and you may need to work your way up to a level where accomplishing your goal becomes practical.

However, it’s possible to work towards your goal, knowing that you will succeed every step of the way.

Here’s how you do it.

First, you’re going to want to break down the overall goal into smaller subgoals. For instance, if your goal is to run a marathon, your first goal may be to run 100 meters. Once you’ve done that, set a new goal to run 200 meters, then 300, then 400, and continue until you’re running a marathon.

It doesn’t matter if it takes you a month to reach a goal, as long as you’re making progress, that’s good enough.

If your goal is to have a successful business that pays you well whether you’re there or not, your subgoals will be quite different.

Your first goal may be to check out several business books from the library. Your next goal may be to read those books and learn something from them. Your 3rd goal may be to use what you learned in these first books to guide your selection of other resources to learn from.

Eventually, you may set a goal to test an ad in your local paper to see what kind of results you get.

When you break things down this small, it’s literally impossible to fail.

Especially when you approach each step as a learning experience to lead you to your eventual success.

And every time you succeed in reaching a goal, even a small one, your confidence grows stronger and stronger.

Just keep this in mind:
A journey of 1000 miles begins with a single step.