Confidence is a key ingredient to achievement. The bigger the goal, the more confidence is necessary to achieve it.
Sure, you need skill, ability to focus, potentially delaying gratification or persevering through challenges. Yet, the feeling of confidence in yourself will help all of those aforementioned attributes come alive.
Bottom line, to win big you must be confident.
Sometimes, though, confidence feels elusive. Especially when we’re on the edges, we need to be able to tap into and call up our feeling of confidence.
Here are 6 strategies to create inner confidence in seconds.
#1 Previous success characteristics. Think back to a time when you were successful. Not only did your performance create the successful outcome, you brought key characteristics to the table that allowed your best actions. Maybe it’s smarts, or grit or optimism or kindness or some other characteristic. Something allowed you to shine through and hit that goal.
Whatever characteristics you used last time you were really successful, connect with and embody those now. Being that person will cause an increase in confidence right away.
#2 Visualize the successful outcome. If you know things will work out for the best, then you’ll be confident, right? That’s right. We can visualize the successful completion of any event in our mind and feel the same feelings as if we actually did it. Thus, confidence is created because we believe we can do it.
Simply visualize the successful outcome of something you want to accomplish. Make it an immersive visualization where you see, hear and feel the sensations of that successful completion. You’ll feel your confidence rise as you connect in with the visualization.
#3 Take action. Often a symptom of a lack of confidence is stagnation and feeling stuck. The remedy is to get into action.
Take the first step or next step towards the goal you want. Take action regardless of how small or large and allow grace if you need to adjust course. Just do it. Actions create momentum and the feeling of positive movement toward a desired outcome breeds confidence.
#4 Use a resource anchor. Similar to taking action, there’s a connection between the body and mind. We can use that connection to create a physical touch or movement that brings us to a confident mental state. Just like a fist pump when draining a 30 foot putt, our body can signal to our mind to have an emotional shift.
If you have a movement of your body or place you touch when feeling confident (maybe clasping your hands or a chest pat), you can do that movement or touch and drop into that confident emotion. (I proactively “install” anchors like this in many of my private coaching clients. If you’re interested in a confidence anchor, email me back.)
#5 Adopt an affirmation or mantra. My 7-year-old daughter created a “hero board” at school that had people she looks up to, things that she likes and sayings that help her. She wrote “You can do it.” That’s apparently her mantra for hyping herself up to do hard things.
What word or short phrase works for you? You want the mantra to be a statement that is true for you. Find that for yourself and repeat it when you need to bring a jolt of confidence to your day.
#6 “Smiling’s my favorite.” Not only is this a great line from the Will Farrell movie “Elf” smiling also is a confidence booster. Studies show that the very act of smiling sends signals to the part of the brain that is influential in creating emotions. When we smile, our brain responds with mood and therefore confidence boosting signals.
When you need to tap into the confidence already inside of you, take a deep breath and put on a smile. In connection with the other five strategies here or on its own, smiling will give access to the confidence you need to perform at your best.
What you’ve noticed about all 6 of these strategies is that each can be done in seconds. We can truly feel anything we desire at any moment. All it takes is one thought, one mental image, one action, one movement, one phrase or one smile to tap into feeling confident.
You got this! 😃