During your career, or even in your personal life, you will come across circumstances that will affect your confidence. Not only do these situations affect your reputation, but they may also deteriorate your confidence in the long‐term. Examples of such situations consist of, but are not limited to, bullying, verbal or physical abuse, gossiping, and public shaming. Additional steps you can take to overcome confidence issues include promoting success by enhancing experiences and taking risks, making use of role models, and seeking encouragement.
Man often becomes what he believes himself to be. If I keep on saying to myself that I cannot do a certain thing, it is possible that I may end by really becoming incapable of doing it. On the contrary, if I have the belief that I can do it, I shall surely acquire the capacity to do it even if I may not have it at the beginning.
– Mahatma Gandhi (cited by Deats 2005)
Self‐confidence – formed by self‐efficacy and self‐esteem – plays a very important role in the development of confidence. While confidence is a general understanding of your abilities and may be triggered from any event, self‐confidence comes from within you and does not require a trigger. During the process of self‐efficacy, one sees themselves mastering and achieving skills in specific areas. The confidence gained through success is the type of confidence that leads people to accept difficult challenges and persist in the face of setbacks. Self‐esteem is more of a general sense of coping with whatever goes on in daily life. This internal quality tends to develop from the approval of people in your environment, virtuous behavior, competence, and completion of goals. Affirmations and positive thinking can influence self‐esteem and self‐confidence. Achieving and setting goals can build competence, which aids in confidence. Some steps that you can take to construct confidence include looking at what you have already achieved, thinking about your strengths, thinking about what is important to you and where you see yourself in the future, rational and positive thinking, and committing yourself to your goals. During this progression, it is very important that you keep a sense of balance between your life and career. Underconfidence can cause you to avoid taking risks or testing your abilities, and overconfidence may cause you to take on more than you can achieve properly or stretch yourself beyond your capabilities. You may also find that you do not try hard enough to focus or complete your tasks to truly succeed. Overcoming false self‐images of perfection, blocking out any self‐rejection, and changing what you believe and feel can aid in this route.
Believe in yourself and there will come a day when others will have no choice but to believe with you.
– Cynthia Kersey (cited by Sharma 2013)
Research has shown that the way people perceive themselves affects how others perceive them (Carney et al. 2010; Cuddy 2009; Cuddy et al. 2011, 2013; Fiske et al. 2006; Sherman et al. 2012). It has also shown that body language affects others' judgment. Amy Cuddy, a social psychologist, has shown how a few simple poses can affect a person's confidence in their personal life, at job interviews, and even in their career (Carney et al. 2010). Such poses include spreading your arms wide to appear more powerful, lifting your chest, holding your head high, and propping your arms either up or on the hips (Carney et al. 2010).
Our bodies change our minds, and our minds can change our behavior, and our behavior can change our outcomes.
– Amy Cuddy (2012)
This is similar to the concept that regulating and balancing your feelings of confidence requires considerable self‐awareness and knowledge. When knowing a subject or stance, speaking with poise and conviction can exude confidence, while uncertainty can emit doubt. Feedback from colleagues, friends, and supervisors on your performance, and identification of strengths and weaknesses can help you utilize and improve on them, respectively. People perceived as warm and competent exhibit uniformly positive emotions and behavior, and those perceived as lacking the warmth portray uniformly negative emotions, such as overconfidence (Fiske et al. 2006). Those with confidence exhibit traits of friendliness, helpfulness, trustworthiness, and morality; competence reflects traits of perceived ability, intelligence, skill, creativity, and efficacy. Practicing these traits and going through the process can mature your confidence.
References
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