10 Ways to Develop an Unshakable Belief in Yourself Overcoming obstacles is how we grow, remain flexible and move forward.
By Sherrie Campbell Edited by Dan Bova
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
What does it mean to have an unshakable belief in yourself? It means you choose to have a winning attitude. You force your mind to see the positive opportunity in every experience, negative or positive. As you look at your core beliefs about yourself, you will see those beliefs reflected back to you in every area of life from finances, reputation, success and love. People with an unshakable belief in who they are focus their minds on opportunities, the bigger picture, patience, resilience, and achieving. They strive to feel deeply happy and satisfied in their lives. People with winning attitudes deeply believe everything they set their mind to is something they can achieve.
1. Think positive.
Each of us has the power to choose and to direct our thoughts in any direction we want. Thinking optimistically keeps life flowing forward in the direction of our thoughts because our actions naturally follow our thoughts. For positive thinking to work we cannot passively think and expect miracles. We have to back our thinking with hard work, follow through and determination. We are all destined for success and can all get there if we believe we can. We have to put action behind our beliefs, and add a touch a patience to our perseverance. Many people become impatient when their positive thinking doesn't immediately manifest success. That is because positive thinking, not backed by hard work, reduces positive thoughts to a wish.
2. Goal-digger.
To develop a winning attitude we must experience winning. For this reason we need to create agendas backed by achievable goals set with target dates for their achievement. My amazing business coach Dr. Dave White tells me we overestimate what we can achieve in a year, but largely underestimate what we can achieve in five years. In our sessions we goal set, explore, plan and achieve something each week. Small achievable goals motivate and inspire us towards our larger goals. Each goal achieved builds confidence and makes the journey towards success enjoyable.
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3. Be a 'passionator'.
To be successful in all areas of life, we have to love what we do. Waking up to a career we feel no passion for will not provide well for us emotionally, even if it provides for us financially. The growth we can experience, personally and financially will be limited when we feel we are just going through the motions to make money. The greatest successes love what they do, and know that what they do spans larger than their own self-interest. It is when we see that what we do makes a positive, and significant difference in the lives of others that we most want to jump out of bed in the morning.
4. Gracious.
When we live with grace instead of entitlement we do not expect anyone to do the hard work for us. We do all we can to propel our success forward. We are not afraid of the hard work required of us to succeed. No one owes us anything. There is nothing more career crushing than an entitled person. They are poor relationship builders, self-centered, tend of bully and are some of the biggest complainers in the corporate world. We must have patience, be gracious, help others, and ask for help when we need it. We must commit to working hard, being thankful and accepting that things are often unfair. We accept if there are goals to be achieved, we must depend upon ourselves to get them done.
5. Keep good company.
We are a direct reflection of the company we keep. Emotions and attitudes are contagious. For this reason we should make it a point to avoid, or largely decrease, the interactions we have with people who are jealous, overtly negative, defeatist or who gossip. We cannot get anywhere when we carry this type of an emotional infection. We must fill our lives with people who are confident, supportive, happy, optimistic, realistic, hardworking and motivated. This type of energy propels our movement forward.
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6. Grit.
Success is always about persistence, determination and the stubbornness to never give up. Setbacks and rejections are a part of any great endeavor, so we must stay driven and optimistic. Rejections and setbacks are what help us explore, grow, solve our problems and increase our knowledge to do better going forward. When we have a winning attitude we see that failures are opportunities, not insurmountable problems. They are springboards to further success and direct us to the places where we need growth and reinvention.
7. Believe in yourself.
We have to focus on developing and working on our unique strengths in order to develop a strong belief in ourselves. We have to step outside of what is familiar for the sole purpose of increasing our self-knowledge and personal development. There is not a perfect person out there, so we must remain humble and inspired to work on improving our shortcomings, while not punishing ourselves over them. We can learn ways to work with them, such as delegating out, rather than letting these aspects of ourselves bring us down down. We have to faith in who we are.
8. Be inspired.
Read. All the great successes read. It's amazing the type of inspiration that can come from reading about other inspiring people. We must spend our time with people who inspire us, and model what they do in their lives in our own lives. Inspiration can be found from family members and loved ones. It is important to look for relationships which inspire us to be better; seek out coaches, therapists and teachers. We can also find a deep sense of inspiration through helping and serving others.
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9. Good health.
Being in excellent physical condition generates a tremendous amount of positive energy. We are a physical, emotional, mental and spiritual being. If our physical body is not healthy it directly decreases our emotional, mental and spiritual health. When we are physically active our bodies produce the feel good chemicals which effectively medicate stress, anger or despair. For this reason we need to take care of our basic physical needs, not just because it is the source of true wealth, but because it generates us to carry a positive vibe about us.
10. Social support.
We live up or down to the expectations and/or beliefs others hold of us. Those people who express their belief and faith in us, our purpose and our agenda in this world serve to deeply motivate us to continue on our mission with a sense of purpose and passion. The faith and belief to come from others, whether that be our manager, our family, friends, our coach, or those we manage serve to keep us on our toes and move us deeply into our personal commitment to our careers.
The stronger we gear our thoughts and actions towards success, the more quickly we develop it. It isn't about pretending bad times don't exist. It is about focusing our minds on the opportunities which can come from our bad days. When we have an unshakable belief in ourselves we posses a deep knowing that we have what it takes to overcome and continue to achieve. Once we achieve consistent positive beliefs in ourselves, our potential exponentially increase. We learn that obstacles are the experiences we need to further train ourselves to grow, remain flexible and move forward with a deeper sense of knowledge. Winston Churchill said, "The pessimist sees difficulty in every opportunity. The optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty."
