Basically, when we cogitate about "confidence" or "being confident" - it seems like an elusive quality sometimes, doesn't it? Quite a number of people just seem to be naturally confident, taking on problems head-on obviously without fear.
One might think that building confidence takes a whole lot of time, and experience, and effort & tribulations to elaborate - most of it outside of your control. It's something a person benefits dormantly as they progress through life, right?
I tend to contradict on this - confidence can be built proactively. It might even be done systematically, with intention.
Let me break it down
No doubt, confidence is built up from blocks of experience. Explicitly, it's built up from conquering challenges. Your confidence grows as you learn to overcome increasingly arduous challenges.
- Systematically, overcoming shabby challenges benefits you a little bit more confidence each time. They are generally more numerous and take little time and effort to achieve.
- Overcoming gigantic challenges gives you big confidence gains. They mostly less common and take more time and effort to overcome.
This connotes that having the right blend of little and big challenges is very crucial. Too many little challenges, and your growth becomes stagnant or even slow. Nevertheless, too many big challenges can lead to submerge, setbacks, and fear of failure.
So if you desire to build confidence in something, you have to get the right mix or blend. Having the right balance of big and small challenges can produce a steady confidence-building momentum.
This means you can take an active role to build it up systematically
- To generate swift momentum, give yourself lots of little, achievable tasks. Actively create these small wins for yourself
- Intentionally pick and choose your bigger challenges. Keep them limited and keep them specific. Specific means making sure they have a pronounced objective - to assure that they are actually achievable.
For instance, if you want to build confidence in public speaking:
Set your big challenge. - To do a talk in front of 100 people or more.
Set your little challenges, such as:
- Mastering 3 hand gesture that you could use during a presentation.
- Learn how to project your voice across a room.
- Speaking for 5 minutes non-stop in front of a mirror daily.
Adjust your challenges to your own level. A "little" challenge to one person might be a "gigantic" challenge to someone else! So never equate yourself with others.
Understanding the right mix of little and big challenges can shield you from biting off more than you can chew, while maintaining a constant momentum of progress.
If this was helpful, I would love to hear your feedback. Any comments,suggestion, requests, or even sharing how these affect your everyday experiences are most welcome.
All images were culled from pixabay