Many of us spend our entire lives being told that confidence is key to success. Everybody from school teachers to parents spew the confidence is key cliché. While many clichés hold no ground, I’ve found this one does! Confidence really is key for business and life success.
That said, I am sharing a three-step method to building confidence for business and life success. Additionally, I am sharing why the confidence is key cliché really is true. It does not matter if you are 90% confident or 10% confident; anybody can become more confident with this three-step method.
Where does self-confidence come from?
In my experiences consulting and coaching business leaders, I’ve observed that self-confidence is a matter of self-trust. You are more likely to have confidence if you trust yourself. Trust is derived from having a personal history of accountability. By that, I mean you have a history or doing what you say you will and living up to your words.
Moreover, building self-confidence is rooted in personal accountability.
Self-confidence is a matter of self-trust.
Take a moment to think of a close friend or family member who you are confident would be there for you during a challenging time. Ask yourself why you are confident in them. More likely than not, you are confident in the friend or family member because you trust them.
Self-confidence is no different than having confidence in somebody else: If you trust yourself, you can be confident in yourself.
Self-trust is a matter of personal accountability.
Trusting yourself is no different than trusting a friend: You trust a friend if they have a history of doing what they say they will do. On the other hand, you do not trust a friend who does not have a history of living up to their words.
Self-trust is no different: You will trust yourself if you have a history of personal accountability. I’ve found the most self-confident people have the highest degree of personal accountability.
What are the potential impacts of having low confidence in business?
Having low self-confidence can impact every move you make in business. Not only does low self-confidence impact the day-to-day workings of your business, but it can also have broad implications on overarching business goals. Unfortunately, most of the implications of low confidence are anything but positive. And while there are many implications, here are some of the worst:
Difficulty forming strong teams: Your level of confidence is energetic. Team members can often sense whether or not you are confident in yourself. Not only is your level of confidence energetic, but it is also infectious. When you have low confidence, the entire team can develop low confidence!
They may see that you do not even trust in yourself or the business to succeed and start to feel the same way. Ultimately, the entire team suffers from low confidence. As a result, productivity, innovation and enthusiasm can decline. How do you expect a team to function like this?
Sales-growth challenges: How do you expect current and potential customers to have confidence in you if you do not have confidence in yourself? Not only can team members be infected with your low confidence, but so can your customer base. As a result, sales growth may either flatline or go downhill.
As the heart of a business, sales success is everything! If the sales department is not making consistent gains, then the rest of the organization could crumble because there will not be enough resources to survive. That said, sales growth challenges created by low confidence are a matter of business survival.
Follow a three-step process to build confidence for business and life.
You cannot run a business without confidence. Will you be self-confident 100% of the time? No, but you can become increasingly self-confident by building trust in yourself. Remember, building trust with yourself is a matter of staying personally accountable. That said, here is my process to build self-confidence for business and life success through building self-trust and living up to your words.
1. Set three to five daily goals.
First, set three to five new goals that you will do every day for two to three weeks. These goals can be anything from making 50 cold calls per day to walking three miles every day. However, be sure that each goal pushes you out of your comfort zone. The goal is worthless if it does not push you! Setting goals gives you an opportunity to work on personal accountability; to have a successful day, you must be accountable for each goal.
Stick to the goals you set for two to three weeks. Prove to yourself that you are worthy of self-trust by staying accountable for each goal.
2. Repeat until you max out.
After two to three weeks of focusing on the first set of goals, establish a new set of goals to follow for the next two to three weeks. Only this time, up the stakes by increasing the difficulty of each goal. For example, go from making 50 cold calls to 75 and jogging for three miles instead of walking.
After the two to three weeks are up, repeat the cycle again! Continue creating a newer and harder set of goals every two to three weeks. Keep going until you feel maxed out. Maxing out is the feeling you get when you reach the absolute peak of your abilities without breaking. Moreover, maxing out is about pushing yourself to the limits through goals.
3. Reflect.
Throughout the process, contemplate just how far you have come. You are proving to yourself that you can set goals, stick to them and keep increasing the stakes. Moreover, you are proving that you are accountable and therefore worthy of your own trust. Over time, that self-trust can turn into self-confidence.
It does not matter where you stand in terms of confidence—this three-step method is for everyone. Not only can your confidence increase your business and life success, but I’ve found it can also increase your joy throughout the journey. And there is no point to running a business if you are doing it without joy.
