We speak a lot about self-worth, self esteem, confidence without using it actually.
Rarely do we make a true assessment of ourselves and think about ourselves as we truly are. If we were to become more pragmatic about ourselves, our lives would definitely become much more profitable and productive.
Self-belief and understanding of self-worth is the primary step toward gaining mastery in anything. Mastery doesn’t come without being confident about yourself first.
The first step to believing in yourself is to understand who you really are.
You Are You – Being Realistic about Yourself
One of the most important things you need to do to achieve any kind of success is to be very realistic about yourself. You need to understand who you really are. Now, if you cannot even run for three minutes, you cannot start believing that you can win a gold medal in running, can you?
Probably you can if you practice, but certainly not with what you are at present. This is what is extremely important to you when you begin. You have to understand your strengths and your capabilities. Realizing that is a very important step of believing in yourself.
There are people all around you achieving something or the other. Some are experts at playing the guitar, some are very brilliant with accounting, and some are great at housekeeping and so on. When we see such people, we do get impressed and we do say something, “I wish I was like him or her.”
This is common human tendency. But that does not help us when we are trying to foster our belief in ourselves. If we are to do that properly, the most important thing we need is to know what we are really capable of.
Take a moment to think. Think what your strengths are. Think what you can do. We are not talking about things that you are an expert in, even some amount of knowledge in that particular area will do. Then take a blank sheet of paper and write down these things. Then arrange them in order. The first three things should be the things that you really do well, followed by things that you can do fairly well, followed by things that you can barely do but you can learn and improve. Take a look at this sheet of paper. Keep it with you always. This is what you are capable of. It is a part of what you are.
This realization is extremely valuable to you when you are trying to make a self-assessment. You need to know what you can do and what you can improve upon. If you are trying to become a master at something, it is very important to be sure of yourself and not live under illusions.
The most important thing is to value yourself. When you know your limitations and your potentials, you know you can stand much better on your own.
Set goals.
“This helps you in chalking out a path that you will travel on in your life. If you believe in yourself, you will also achieve these goals and move on from one point to the other.”
Goals are a very important aspect of our life. We are rationally thinking creatures; we don’t live by instinct. That is the reason we need goals that can help us take from one point to another in our lives. When we are at school, our goals could be to achieve a particular grade; when we are in college, our goal might be to score a particular mark to get admission in a certain professional course; when we are able to work, our goal could be to get into a particular organization and so on. We are always setting goals for ourselves, and trying to reach them.
If you aren’t establishing goals already, you are leading an unplanned life. Your life lacks direction. You aren’t living; you are merely existing. You are merely taking life as it comes.
However, a person who has goals in life has one very important benefit. They come to know what they are really worth. If you have set a particular goal for yourself and you achieve it, you know you are capable of that. This makes you surer about yourself.
You know now that this was something you could do and you did. This is not just something on your résumé; it is something that is etched into your life – it has become a part of yourself. And it will reinforce the belief you have in yourself.