Believing in yourself means being confident in your abilities. It means that you trust yourself to do what you need to do to achieve the desired outcome. Believing in yourself is a mixture of several key psychological components: self-worth, self-confidence, self-trust, self-respect, autonomy, and environmental mastery (Davis).
-
- Self-worthis the sense that you have value as a human being.
- Self-confidenceis a positive attitude about your abilities, qualities, and judgment.
- Self-trustis faith that you can rely on yourself.
- Autonomyis feeling able to choose and direct your own behavior.
- Environmental masteryis your belief that your efforts can result in the changes you desire.
Believing in ourselves is the key to achieving our goals and manifesting our dreams. When we believe in ourselves we are likely to act and do what is necessary to reach our goals. When we are pushing forward to manifest our dreams, or thoughts, attitudes, and actions should be in alignment. The key that turns on all these components is our self-belief.
So how do we just believe in ourselves?
Hera are the key components of self-belief:
-
- Self-worth
The most fundamental part of believing in yourself is believing that you have worth. Self-worth is the sense that you have value as a human being, regardless of what others say or feel. Your self-worth comes from self-understanding, self-love, and self-acceptance.
One way to develop our self-worth is by being kind to ourselves and being compassionate to oneself. This means being nice to ourselves, going easy on ourselves when we make mistakes, and being our own cheerleader.
-
- Self-confidence
Self-confidence is the positive attitude about your qualities and abilities. When you are self-confident, you will start to believe in yourself and trust that you are going to accomplish your goals.
But of course, we don’t come into this world fully equipped to accomplish all our desires. When it so happens that you lack certain skills and knowledge to accomplish your goals, focus on the qualities and strengths you have at the moment, then build on them. Allow yourself to grow and develop one step at a time. With each successful step you take, you will believe in yourself more.
-
- Self-Trust
When we trust someone, we believe they are honest and sincere and will not deliberately harm you. But trust is just not for others; it is for us as well. We also have trust for ourselves. This means consistently staying true to yourself. Trusting yourself means you look after your own needs, and you treat yourself with love and compassion, and you know what you can and cannot do. We cannot believe in ourselves if we do not have self-trust. We have to become a person that we can believe.
-
- Autonomy
Autonomy, also referred to as self-empowerment, is the ability to take control of one’s life. It means having the freedom to make our own decisions, set our own goals, and make our own choices. It is being able pursue one’s unique paths in life.
There are times when believing in ourselves could lead us to situations makes us scared or uncomfortable. These situations can take away some of our control and power and prevents us from believing ourselves.
Take back your autonomy by looking at these disempowering situations and find out how they are preventing you from believing in yourself. Believe in yourself by taking back your power.
-
- Environmental Mastery
When you take effective action to achieve the results you want, then you are mastering your world. Environmental mastery is our belief that our efforts can result in the changes we desire.
When we encounter failure after failure, we feel that we could not master our environment. We then stop believing in ourselves. We can prevent this from happening by setting small, achievable goals. This can help us regain a sense of environmental mastery, and we can start believing again in ourselves and our ability to achieve our goals or objectives.
Now that you know the components that make up our self-belief, make sure to practice them and incorporate them in your life. Remember that believing in yourself is crucial to your success.
Sources:
Davis, Tchiki. “Believe in Yourself: Why It’s Important and How to Do It.” Accessed July 15, 2023. https://www.berkeleywellbeing.com/believe-in-yourself.html.
Kendra, Cherry. “Self-Efficacy and Why Believing in Yourself Matters.” Last modified February 2, 2023. https://www.verywellmind.com/what-is-self-efficacy-2795954.
Young Minds. “Self Esteem and Believing in Yourself.” Accessed July 15, 2023. https://www.youngminds.org.uk/young-person/coping-with-life/self-esteem-and-believing-in-yourself/.