People with high self-confidence are more successful in the tasks they have to carry out and, in many cases, in life in general. This psychological variable can be confused with self-esteem, but they are not the same thing.

That is why these individuals overcome adversity because they feel capable of it, and achieve work or life goals because they perceive they are capable of it. Their motivation remains high and they are able to make correct decisions even in the most complex moments.

Self-confidence is key to personal development

Many people often confuse self-confidence with self-esteem. But self-esteem is related to the overall assessment that a person makes of himself, it is a general feeling, and refers to the esteem, ie how much a person loves and appreciates himself.

Self-confidence, on the other hand, refers to a person’s confidence in his or her abilities with regard to a given task. It has to do with the competences and skills, and the beliefs that a person has about the mastery of these . For example, if a salesperson knows that he or she does a good job as a salesperson, he or she will probably be more confident in persuading a customer, since he or she believes that he or she is good at it.

Self-confidence refers to a specific area of our life, as opposed to self-esteem, which is a global concept. The salesperson in the example above will therefore have high self-confidence when doing his job, but may have low self-confidence when having a partner.

Habits and actions to cultivate self-confidence

In the following lines you can find a series of tips that will allow you to cultivate self-confidence.

1. Elógiate

One of the best ways to repeat behaviors is through reinforcement . Praise is a good way to remind yourself how well you have done things, and it is a powerful form of verbal persuasion, which according to Albert Bandura is one of the elements that influence self-confidence. Therefore, giving more importance to the things you do well and minimizing the impact of negative things can positively influence self-confidence. To do this, acceptance is key.

2. Have a positive attitude

Obviously, it is not always possible to have a positive attitude, but, following the previous point, we must make an effort to see the good things in life. To stop comparing yourself to others and to start valuing your abilities in a positive way has a great influence on how you perceive the challenges you face in your daily life.

In fact, having a low or weak self-confidence is associated with negative thoughts and failure , so we must adopt the opposite mentality. We must try to be motivated most of the time, even if it sometimes costs.

3. Have successful models

Albert Bandura, one of the most important theorists of this concept, explained in his socio-cultural theory the reason why we learn by observation and how some people have a great influence on our behavior, and also on our self-confidence.

In fact, this author believes that observing other people doing successful activities has a great influence on our own self-confidence.Modeling is a technique widely used in coaching, which is a key methodology for the personal development of people.

4. Accept the past

The acceptance of our own experiences and ourselves not only influences our well-being and emotional balance, but also our self-confidence. If when things go wrong we recreate them, we may have a negative perception of ourselves and our abilities to cope with a certain activity.

On the other hand, if in the face of failure we adopt a mentality of acceptance and understand that mistakes are part of our lives, our self-confidence does not have to be negatively affected in these situations.

5. Test yourself

Albert Bandura believes that another of the elements that influence confidence in ourselves is acting . If we dare to do something and it turns out well, our self-confidence improves. Positive experiences are essential for the perception of our abilities to be positive.

As I mentioned in the previous point, when things don’t go well it is better to accept them and move on. Since experiences are a great source of information for self-confidence, and perhaps the most important, it is always better to put yourself to the test, since we can only regret what we have not done.

6. Remember your achievements

Accepting negative experiences acts as protection and keeps one’s confidence in a safe zone , however, it is also important to remind ourselves that there are things we do very well.

This can be done by drawing up a list of achievements, which we can use as often as we like to remind ourselves of our strengths and goals. This is certainly a useful strategy for times when we are less motivated.

7. Prepare yourself well

When we do not have much confidence in ourselves regarding a particular situation we can always prepare ourselves well, as this can improve the perception of self-confidence. For example, we may not master a subject well enough to give a presentation at the university. However, if we prepare it well in advance and inform ourselves properly, it is possible that by the time we present that topic our confidence will have increased .