Turns out that the ubiquitous “just believe in yourself” saying is actually true when it comes to attaining success. But, what actually constitutes believing in yourself?
Coined by psychologist Albert Bandura, ‘self-efficacy’ is one’s discernment of their own ability to succeed in any given task or endeavour they undertake. Bandura’s motivation-theory is significant because he believed that self-efficacy ultimately determined one’s behaviour and performance.
Here’s what constitutes believing in yourself and how you can improve your self-efficacy:
- Experience
If you are booed off stage only once out of ten singing performances, it’s highly likely that you will continue singing. But, if you are booed off stage nine times out of ten persomances then it’s highly probable that you might quit singing altogether.
The more successful streaks you have, the more confident you become and the more successive failures you encounter, the less confident you become in your ability to achieve your set goals.
Journal your wins, regardless of their size, and start celebrating them. Doing this seemingly menial thing will help to build your confidence in your ability to achieve similar and bigger goals in the future.
- Social Persuasion
If your inner circle of friends are always battering your goals and ambitions, jokingly or not, it’s doubtful that you will achieve them effectively.
You need to guard what voices you feed your mind on, because unfortunately, your mind cannot reject what you feed it. It will produce what you feed it.
Psych yourself up by verbally affirming that you can and will achieve your set goals. Incorporate this into your daily routine, every once in a while, take a break and remind yourself that you will achieve your set goals. This will help you to focus on what really matters, achieving your goals.
- Vicarious experience
We all love learning from people who are relatable to us. And, when we see them achieving goals similar to our own, we get enthused and inspired to achieve ours too.
Find a handful of people who have achieved goals which are similar to the ones you want to achieve, research their lives, what drives them and their behaviours. Doing this will help you to cement the belief that if they could do it then so can you.
- Physiological feedback
How you interpret the way you feel about your goals can actually affect whether or not you’ll be effective in achieving them or not.
Say that you land an opportunity to give your elevator-pitch to Kevin O’Leary “Mr. Wonderful” and you begin feeling anxious about it. If you interpret that anxiousness as a reminder to focus on giving a simple yet attractive pitch, then you’ll likely give a great pitch. If you interpret the anxiousness as a feeling of doubt, then you’ll likely give a dead and unconvincing pitch.
Believing in yourself, no matter how cliche it sounds, is foundational to creating the success you desire because it ultimately affects your behaviour and overall performance which determine your success or failure in any given task.