A friend of mine was talking about how easy it was to have confidence when we don’t need it. He had spent a bunch of money, which was being saved for a tax bill, on something he didn’t need with complete confidence that he could make that money back up quickly. But when it came time to start making the money back up, he lost all confidence and became worrisome, paranoid, and depressed. He needed to find that confidence in order to get back on track. He found some quotes about confidence and they instantly got him in a better mindset which helped him move forward productively. Could they do the same for you?
1. Take Action And Gain Confidence
“Stay afraid, but do it anyway. What’s important is the action. Just do it and the confidence will follow.” – Carrie Fisher
I love this quote about confidence. It points out a simple fact: your confidence is not going to be there until you really start taking action.
I don’t know one person who isn’t afraid to do something big in their lives. I’ve seen people pretend like they have full confidence, but as humans, most of us experience fear and doubt and worry – so 100% confidence can’t be possible. I say ‘most of us’ because I have read about different people who don’t experience fear, like this woman. But, for the most part, humans experience negative emotions that can stunt their confidence and even demolish it.
So, be afraid, but do it anyway. Take whatever action is needed and take it one step at a time. Confidence should come.
2. Hold On To Something More
“When you are in fear you create more fear and entangle yourself in mistrust. But in your Knowing, you are safe.” – Bruce Van Horn
Fear compounds and causes a lack of confidence.
This quote is on point and something to remember each time you allow yourself to get caught up in your fear.
My friend feared not having enough money to pay his tax bill, and the more he feared it, the more he started to mistrust himself and his capabilities. How was he supposed to make that money if he couldn’t stop focusing on the fear?
As Bruce Van Horn said, getting out of fear and into Knowing is the best thing you can do. To me, this just means trusting that things will work out. To a friend of mine, this means trusting in God. To another friend, this means trusting in the universe. It all depends on your spiritual beliefs and where you put your faith.
I’ve found the best way to move forward Knowing is to look back at all the times things have worked out for you, even when you thought they weren’t going to. The chances are good that this will be a time that things will work out too, so have confidence in that.
3. If We Were Experts On The Subject, We’d Be More Confident
“The problem is we expect to be self-confident, but we can’t be unless the skill or the task we’re doing is not novel.” – Dr. Ivan Joseph
We can’t be confident in something unless we are good at it. This is why faith and action are important. In fact, Dr. Ivan Joseph talks about how important the action of repetitiveness is for building confidence.
He also says you need to stop bailing after failure and adversity and not accept failure. You need to persist despite what is happening to you.
I can speak from experience on this one. When I first started freelance writing, I had zero confidence in myself. I would scrutinize my writing and wait for rejections. It took me thousands of articles to really build an unstoppable confidence when it came to writing articles for clients. Once I developed that confidence, I didn’t worry about my writing.
I can say the same for certain sports when I was younger. I knew that I was good, so I was tremendously confident in playing.
My friend can say the same for job interviews. As someone who works as a contractor, he has been on so many job interviews that they don’t even phase him anymore. Even though he lacks confidence in many areas of his life, he goes into a job interview with complete confidence. He knows what to say, how to act, and how to give himself the best shot possible.
The bottom line is that we need to do things repeatedly despite a lack of confidence. The more we do those things, the more confident we become. Whether it’s dating, writing, playing an instrument, public speaking, or anything else – repetitiveness builds confidence.
4. Replace Your Negative Self Talk With Positive Self Talk
“There needs to be quiet moments in your bedroom and quiet moments when you’re brushing your teeth to reaffirm, ‘I am the captain of my ship and the master of my fate’.” – Dr. Ivan Joseph
This is a fact.
We talk to ourselves all day long. If we say negative things to ourselves, we destroy things like our confidence. If we say positive things to ourselves, we build things like our confidence up.
While you should use your quiet moments to talk positively to yourself, remind yourself of why you are great, and give yourself a boost in confidence, there are many different ways you can do it.
- You can write notes and read them internally or verbally.
- You can say whatever you need to hear in the moment.
- You can use positive affirmations in the morning or evening in the present or future tense.
And, you can add your name into the affirmation to give yourself more advice and support, as this article says to do. Saying your name is supposed to give you distance and make yourself sound more rational, which will help anyone who struggles with talking positively to themselves.
And, of course, you need to get away from people who are going to plug those negative affirmations into your head. If they are repeatedly telling you that you can’t do it, then it’s going to be very hard to talk positively to yourself and build that confidence. So, surround yourself with people who give a damn about your confidence and want to help you build it up.
If you lean more toward introversion like me, use this #affirmation to help you build your confidence & energy when making new #friends. pic.twitter.com/sFRakfUtfa
— Jack Canfield (@JackCanfield) August 17, 2017
5. Your Relationships Will Benefit From Your Confidence
“No one will believe in you unless you do.” – Dr. Ivan Joseph
If you are walking around miserable and spouting off about how undesirable or unworthy you are, then people are going to believe you! They will believe whatever you show them about yourself.
That’s one reason it’s important to build your confidence.
- If you want people to see you as a confident person, you need to act like a confident person.
- If you want people to believe in you, then you need to believe in yourself.
- If you want people to treat you with respect, then you need to respect yourself.
All of your relationships, including work relationships, love relationships, friend relationships, and family relationships, will benefit from your confidence.
6. Don’t Listen To Other People’s Hatred Towards Confidence
“Those that shame confidence have no confidence.” – Joe Weller
We are influenced by the people around us. Even strangers on social media can influence how we feel about things like confidence.
If you scroll around social media, you may find some people talking about how confident people are ridiculous. But, confidence is not ridiculous. It can benefit your entire life, which means a confident person is being benefited. How is that ridiculous?
When you see other people talking poorly about a confident person or talking about how stupid it is to walk around with confidence, don’t listen to them. They are NOT aware of how good it feels to be confident and how inspiring it can be for your life. If they were, they would never say such a thing.
Hold your head high and keep looking for or holding onto that confidence. It will get you through tough times, help you succeed, and help you influence this world in a way you want to influence it.
7. When You Feel Desperation, Find Peace
“Don’t get desperate. Operate from a place of peace and confidence. It’s coming!” – Tony A. Gaskins Jr.
Feeling desperation is a good sign that your confidence is wavering.
I really like this quote about confidence. It outlines a simple way to let go of that negative feeling of desperation and move towards confidence.
We all have different ways of finding peace. Some people go to church. Some people surround themselves with family. Some people pray, meditate, or go for a walk. Some people go out into nature, get offline, or enjoy the moment.
When you find yourself feeling desperate, do what YOU have to do to find peace, center yourself, and get out of that state.
8. Don’t Lead With ‘I Doubt It’
“Every time someone tells me something’s impossible, I think ‘No!’ I kind of think that everything’s possible. It doesn’t mean it’s all going to work out – I’m not nuts – but I never lead with ‘I doubt it.'” – Melissa McCarthy: Elle Canada
Never lead with ‘I doubt it’. Instead, develop the habit of saying, ‘It could happen.’
Those two affirmations produce a very different feeling inside of me when I say them. How about you?
Affirming that it could happen gives you the motivation to try. It gives you confidence that things may work out, and even if they don’t, at least you tried to see if they could!
9. See The Silver Lining
“If you are optimistic and you can see the silver lining rather than the black cloud, I think it gives you self-confidence.” – Sam Zell
A good reason to be optimistic about life is that it gives you a sense of confidence. This falls into the ‘don’t lead with I doubt it’ category, but it’s a different way of looking at it.
Look for the silver lining in any situation. When you do that, you can see the potential and you can feel more confident in what you are doing or towards the plans you have in the future.
10. Why Bother Building Confidence At All?
“If you don’t have confidence, you’ll always find a way not to win.” – Carl Lewis
Living life as a loser is no way to live. Believe me, I know my fair share of people who lived their lives as losers. They didn’t take the chance. They sabotaged their success. They quit when things were just starting to get good. They lacked the faith and optimism to go forward, and they found ways to not win in life.
Now they live with regrets and complaints. That’s it.
Making the effort to build your confidence will help you take chances, push through doubts, and keep going as things start to get good.
Making the effort to build your confidence will help you live a more rewarding and exciting life.
If you want to live a more rewarding life, then remind yourself each day that you want to build confidence and use the tools and tips that help you do it.
