Self-confidence is something that fades as we age. When we are young, we have more of it than we know what to do with: we don’t know any better. As we become more aware of our surroundings, we become conscious of our actions and what we say around other people. We can build that confidence back up again, as we should.
Here are five reasons self confidence is important for your future success and well being in the years to come.
Self confidence helps you set and achieve goals
Whether we do it knowingly or by accident, we set a lot of goals throughout our lifetimes. We want to wake up earlier tomorrow. We want to pass that class with at least a B. We want, we work, we succeed. Sometimes. Goal setting is something we do much more actively as we become aware of our own desires, and as we grow into ourselves and gain more confidence in our abilities.
Without self confidence, it is much harder to picture yourself succeeding at anything in the future. That, as you can probably guess, makes goal setting pretty difficult. You might not know what you want to accomplish at all. With self confidence, even if you don’t always know the exact road you are going to end up traveling, you know where you want to end up. That is essential to your future success.
You not only have to be confident in the goals you set: you also have to be confident in the fact that you have what it takes to turn those goals into achievements. In this case, self confidence just means you are able to talk yourself up when you are feeling discouraged. Even trapped in the valleys between mountains of success, you are still convinced you can make it happen … eventually.
It lets you make connections and meet new people
Are you the kind of person who can walk into a room, spot someone who isn’t already engrossed in a conversation and approach them to introduce yourself? Not everyone can; it takes some bravery to walk into the life of someone you don’t know. This skill, however, is something that will help you form relationships both in your professional and personal life.
It takes some practice, and a lot of self confidence, to build up the courage to network effectively with professionals in your aspiring or current field. You need to make connections with the professionals around you, both those at your level and those further along in their career tracks than you. A little self confidence can carry you a long way at conferences and networking events.
Confidence is important not just for networking, but for making friends as well. Your social circle will always be an important part of any area of your life. Friends and co-workers will support you, encourage you and teach you life lessons you might never learn anywhere else. Before that happens, you have to meet them by introducing yourself to people you want to get to know better.
It allows you to become a better leader
Leadership skills are something that simply cannot develop without self confidence to hold them all together. To be a leader, you have to know when it is acceptable to be in control and when it is not your turn to stand in the spotlight. Confidence simply is not an option, but are instead a necessity.
Becoming a strong, successful leader requires a lot of self confidence. You need to be able to stand up in front of a group and give instructions. You need to be willing to listen to and utilize other people’s ideas and set aside your own. You also must be able to handle harsh constructive criticism, and not let it affect you on a personal level.
All of these things require self confidence. Be confident in your ability to lead. If you are at the forefront of something you are extremely passionate about, let that carry you through and strengthen you when things aren’t as easy as you hoped they would be. Learn to separate the professional from the personal, and be confident in your skills as a professional even if your personal self needs a little work.
It makes it easier to recover from your mistakes
“I can’t believe I messed this up again. I’ll never learn how to do it right!”
Have you ever heard anyone use phrases like these? Maybe you have even used them once or twice. It isn’t easy to admit we have messed up. What is even harder is learning to accept that making a mistake doesn’t mean we won’t bounce back from that mistake. Mistakes can wound our confidence, but the more self confidence we have, the quicker we can heal from those wounds.
Confidence helps you learn from your mistakes. It helps you realize that failure is part of the road to success, but you cannot blame yourself or anyone else for the mistakes you have made. Instead, you have to be confident enough to understand that in order to learn, you are going to have to do something wrong before you can do it right.
Self confidence keeps you moving forward
Sometimes, when we are making our way toward achieving goals or adjusting to a new life event, it can seem like time is moving slower than it ever has before. We are impatient. Over time, that can start to make it more difficult to keep moving forward at all. Which is necessary, if we ever want to accomplish anything.
The more self confidence you have, the more likely you will be able to continue to keep pushing yourself forward, even when it seems like that isn’t producing any worthwhile results. As you build up your own confidence, you will start to notice that it gets easier to keep reaching even when the goal is still too far away.
Self confidence is all about doing what you want to do, regardless of what others might think. Set goals. Make connections. Become the leader you have always wanted to be, and keep moving forward. Never doubt yourself: you can do this.
