The Catalyst #2: Self Belief

Taking that leap of faith

We all love to hear success stories and almost all of us wish we have one too.

But no success story ever began without an individual believing in themselves.

"No success story ever was written without the ink of self belief".

Self belief is when an individual has trust in their ability to overcome challenges & achieve their goals.

This is often rooted from

• clear understanding of one's skills & expertise

• previous accomplishments
• positive outcomes from their judgements & decisions in the past
• awareness of one's strengths & weaknesses, risk appetite & limitations

How does self belief help?

Self belief helps prepare an individual for the "leap of faith".

It helps them to

• get started
• keep going
• show courage in times of adversity
• bounce back from the lows
• explore beyond
• make bold decisions

How can you build self belief?

1. Self Awareness - As an individual, being aware about one's own self, helps understand one's potential. This makes it easier to believe in one's own abilities & on taking up challenges. This also helps to gradually push oneself beyond the boundaries expanding it further resulting in self belief.
2. Goal Setting - Setting & accomplishing goals help build confidence that further aids to deepen self belief. Set small, achievable goals to start with, achieve them, celebrate, introspect & move to the next set & level of goals.
3. Failure - This will seem surprising. But one of the ways to build self belief is to embrace failure. While failing will not directly build self belief but the learnings from it will definitely help. And you will willingly accept that things may (& can & do) go wrong. Overcoming this fear of failure by embracing it, is perhaps the first step to demonstrate self belief.
4. Overcoming Fear - Very often, most people lack action due to their inhibitions & fears about what others will think or say about them, the hit that their credibility will take in case of failure etc. Overcoming this fear is essential to take action and taking action will help build self belief over time.I recollect a nice quote which says - "You cannot steer parked cars".
5. Positive Attitude - As they say, a pessimist sees an excuse in every problem whereas an optimist sees an opportunity in every problem. Positive attitude helps to see the bright side of things, e.g. ways of doing things rather than putting those off, lessons from failures instead of feeling ashamed, reasons to step out of the comfort zone than to stay stagnated within it & so on. Developing positive attitude will build self belief. You will start believing that even when things go wrong, valuable lessons emerge from it to help you get better.
6. Discipline - Nothing beats consistency & discipline. If you have the skill to be disciplined, then almost anything is possible for you to achieve. This builds immense self confidence. Consistency in your efforts to get better, up skill, take action, learn, explore newer areas for growth & individual development leads to building self belief. And since you do it consistently, you know you can do it over & over again, even after a speed breaker along the road.
7. Self Appraisal - More like a self evaluation or introspection, this helps uncover weaknesses & reconfirms strengths based on our actions, successes & failures. This brings in self awareness which in turn builds self belief
8. Feedback - This goes without saying. There is a subtle difference between confidence & over confidence. While the former is good, the latter isn't. While self belief is synonymous with the former, it can also overlap with the latter if there is no mechanism for feedback. Self appraisal can make one believe that they can do everything. Unchecked, it can lead to under estimating involved risks & uncertainties in the opportunities calling for action. This in turn will hurt confidence in the long run. This is where feed back from mentors, coaches, family & well wishers come into play. This helps build self belief without turning it into over confidence that costs later.
9. Compassion for self - Last but definitely not the least, be easy on yourself. Easy not to the extent that you start taking things lightly, but easy to the extent that you don't cause your self image any harm or damage within your own eyes. Aim for the highest targets & toughest goals but be flexible & accommodating to digest failures & incorporate learnings without hurting your self confidence. Don't be too harsh on yourself. You want to build self belief and not crush it down.

What next after building self belief?

Take that leap of faith.

Have a goal that you have been contemplating for long or been postponing it?

Well, give it a try. NOW is the time. Get started.

See the image above?

I came up with this tongue twister for you all..

"Its not how world sees you who you are, but how you see who you are is what makes you truly who you are" !

Ain't a tongue twister? Take 5x challenge. Repeat it 5 times without a fumble.

And trust yourself, you can do it ;)

New Addition

For anyone who missed the previous edition of this newsletter or would like to hear it, instead of reading through, please find episode embedded from the podcast. Feel free to subscribe to podcast if interested.

In this edition of The Catalyst, we absorbed what “Self Belief” is & what are the different ways to build it.

As I strongly believe that with self belief one can discover those paths which they never thought ever existed before.

Again, no rocket science there.

I hope this edition was helpful in giving you practical insights to build self belief and will help you take that leap of faith.

If yes, consider spreading the word & sharing this with your network.

And remember, Self belief is the propeller towards success

Still have self doubts?

Need help with building self belief?

DM me on LinkedIn and let's see how I can help you.

#selfbelief #thecatalyst