Confidently Create Trust Within Yourself

Do you trust yourself? Are you confident in yourself??

The Latin root of the word confidence, confidentia, means to be firmly trusting, bold or to have full trust and reliance. If we want to be able to achieve our goals, fulfill our dreams, and succeed at the highest level, it’s absolutely essential that we learn to confidently trust ourselves. This requires us to have self-efficacy, which is essentially the science of believing in oneself.

Confidence Grows From Past Experiences

When it comes to confidence, we usually have to rely on past experiences of success to give us the confidence to pursue new growth and challenges. After all, we can’t know for sure what the future will hold, or whether we will succeed at any given moment.?

As people, however, we sometimes only think about past failures. It’s all too easy to fixate on all the ways we haven’t performed well, been at our best, or made ourselves proud. Unfortunately, thinking about past failure sets us up to repeat those same mistakes; or worse, to do nothing at all.

Instead of fixating on failure, we need to learn to build on our past experiences with success. We need to get in the habit of visualizing those times where we crushed our goals, when things went really well, or when we were most proud of what we accomplished. Once we have a few good scenarios, we need to play those over in our minds again and again.

We all have past experiences that are both good and bad, successful and failures. Learn to use the best of what you’ve done before to fuel today’s confidence.

Feed Your “Good Wolf”

You’ve probably heard the old story about the good wolf and the bad wolf that we each carry inside our hearts and minds. One of them is going to get strong enough to dominate our lives. Which one? The one we feed!

Everyone has an inner “good” wolf...and an inner “bad” wolf. One is filled with greatness, positivity, confidence, and ambition. The other is filled with fear, anxiety, doubt, dread, and a lack of belief.

Which one are you feeding?

We each need to learn to feed our good wolf, otherwise known as the great mindset that lies within us. Although there's plenty of negative talk surrounding us, and many negative things in the world, we don’t need to give them power in our lives, or let them determine what actions we will take.?

Instead, we can persuade ourselves that we are capable, that we are ready to succeed, and that we can have confidence in trusting ourselves to take action.

Let Your Foundation Be the Small Things

When it comes to confidence, we can do ourselves a huge favor by learning to take care of the simple things.?

Some of my favorite foundational things include nutrition, exercise, and recovery time. A lot of people might think that this only counts for athletes, or for people who love to workout. But that’s not true!?

In order to be confident in yourself, no matter what you're doing, you have to be consistently putting the right things into your body. You have to have a balanced diet that gives you energy and? vitality. After all, your diet is a major element that can make you a vibrant person day in and day out.?

One of the best things that I ever did for my diet was getting my blood tested. I really believe that if you're going to improve, you have to assess where you currently are. Every year I make sure that I take the time to collect data and assess where I am in terms of my bloodwork and what I’m putting into my body.

For example, I’m an O blood type, which means my body thrives on fruits and vegetables and lean meats. I noticed an incredible difference in my energy and strength once I started putting only those foods in my body. And I didn’t have to rely on trial and error! In addition to identifying my strengths, the blood test also showed me what I shouldn't be putting in my body, which is also important to know. Knowing that I’m eating in a way to elevate how I look and how I feel increases my confidence!

Exercise is also a vital key to building your confidence and energy. There's so much in science out there in terms of what working out can do for you, and it doesn’t mean you have to spend hours on a treadmill! For example, my trainer lifts twice a week, but also relies on basketball, beach volleyball, and other sports he enjoys to keep himself fit. You can do the same; kayaking, walking, yoga, kickboxing, dancing, and swimming might appeal to you more than weight lifting or using cardio equipment. That’s great -- go do those things!

Exercise is an amazing way to increase both physical and mental confidence.?

Last but not: recovery time. Sleeping is the best natural steroid you can get, and it’s a major way our bodies recover. When you see a guy like LeBron James perform at the level that he's performing at, I can guarantee you that at least part of his success and longevity is because of his sleep regimen. Getting into a sleep routine for winding down is a great way to get some extra sleep.?

Although there is a lot of science recommending a full 8 hours of sleep, at the end of the day you have to do what works best for you to perform optimally. If that means a little less or a little more, that’s great -- just focus on ensuring you’re getting the sleep you need to show up with confidence in your life.?

Tapping Into Hope

I believe that, to have hope, you also need to have a goal. You have to be able to look forward with a desire for what could be, and to also understand that your way might not be the perfect way. You have to know that there will be obstacles and struggles, and to be willing to make an effort anyways.

In order to confidently trust yourself, you have to recognize that everything won’t always go perfectly, and that’s okay. You have to have hope that you will find a way to overcome!

My favorite way to build my hope (and my confidence) is to ask questions like:

Who are you??

Who do you aspire to be??

Five years from now, who will you be??

How can you act like this 50year version of yourself right now, starting today?

How would you breathe??

How would you dress??

How would you move??

How would you make decisions?

When we are coming from a place of hope and we are firmly rooted in our identity, then we are capable of taking serious action with confidence.?

Feel Your Fear

Even the most confident among us feel fear sometimes!

When you feel that sensation of fearfulness come on, try telling yourself something like, “Bring it on! I love the fear, fear sets me free.”?

There's a lot of research growing behind the idea of allowing yourself to really feel your fear and then combat it by telling yourself that you're ready to face it,? and even that you're excited about it.?

As you learn to really feel fear, face fear, and then overcome your fear, you’ll naturally grow in confidence. You’ll learn that you can trust yourself to feel and face big things, hard things, and that facing them won’t make you give up. In fact, it will make you even stronger!

Also, understand that when it comes to confidence, with no pressure you’ll have no diamonds. Those hard things that come provide the pressure you need to clarify your goals, your sense of self, and your confidence in your ability to get things done and be successful.

Cast Your Vision

Finally, confident people have a vision for the future that they believe in.

Belief in this vision is the key part. However, it doesn’t mean having your head in the clouds. Confident people also embrace their current reality, and they see the obstacles in the way too.

They just don’t let those obstacles overwhelm the vision they have for the future, and they don’t let doubt or fear steal their belief for what could be.

One of the best tips I've ever learned for gaining more confidence is to understand that things won't always go right.?

My peak performance coach told me that golfers stay confident and fearless, even when things don’t seem great, because they go into the game knowing that, in each round, there will be at least seven bad shots. When they experience a bad shot, it doesn't throw them off their game because they know that it's just a part of the round.?

Life is the same! No one is going to get through life with all perfect shots. Rather than shutting down when things don’t seem to be going well, we can build our confidence by expecting some obstacles and still choosing to believe in our vision while working towards our goals.?

One last tip: To truly have confidence and self-trust, we have to take responsibility for where we are before we can get better or improve.

Try asking yourself to identify what’s working right now, and what’s important for your future. Then, ask what chapter in your life needs some editing right now.?

Don't judge yourself, just figure out where you could put some work in to reach that next level, and create a plan of attack so you can start taking action today.