When it comes to achieving your dreams and goals, how much thought have you given to learning how to start believing in yourself first?
If, like most of us, you haven’t given it much thought so far, this scientifically proven insight will surprise and delight you.
So, let’s dive in and learn how to start believing in yourself.
Learning How to Start Believing in Yourself is an Untapped Superpower
The wonderful thing about this superpower is that we all have it available within us.
We can all learn to believe in ourselves. It doesn’t cost anything or rely on any particular circumstances to work.
Believing You Can Do Something is Completely Different to Wishing You Could
Some people might dismiss the idea of self-belief. Suggesting you can’t believe your way to what you want. But I think they’re getting mixed up with wishing. If so, they’re right.
You can’t wish yourself to achieve something.
Wishing you could lose weight but not believing you can is different to knowing in your heart you can do it with focus and effort.
When people wish, they don’t learn what it takes to reach their goals — the behaviour, actions, and skills — to get them to where they want to be. They believe deep down it’s impossible, so their mind doesn’t look for solutions, and they don’t put in the work needed.
WISHING SOUNDS LIKE THIS:
“I wish I could lose weight and stop putting it back on. But it’s impossible. I’ve tried so many times and all I do is give up. I’m just not meant to be healthy, happy or like ‘those girls’.”
BELIEVING SOUNDS LIKE THIS:
“I want and know I can lose weight and keep it off. I’ve tried in the past, which means I can learn from my mistakes this time. I can achieve this goal because I’ve used discipline and habits to achieve other things in my life. I know I can do it if I find a sustainable way of eating. I appreciate I’ll make mistakes but that’s okay because I’m not aiming for perfection. I’m aiming to get a little bit better every day.”
What is Believing in Yourself?
Believing in yourself is knowing deep in your heart with hard work, dedication, and focus, you’ll make your dreams a reality. And contrary to popular belief, it’s not about never failing.
It’s knowing when you fail — because we all do at times — that you have the ability within yourself to learn what you need to get back up and try again.
Believing in yourself is effectively a mantra you say to yourself along the lines of “I know I can”.
A positive attitude towards yourself creates the internal determination, focus and energy required to achieve what you want.
A Growth Mindset
Something as important as believing in yourself, if not more important, is the belief that you can improve.
The belief you’ve got what it takes to learn, master and implement the skills you need to achieve your goals.
This is known as having a growth mindset, and research shows those with it — those who believe they can improve — do.
They see continuous improvement in their skills, achievements and success — and ultimately reach their goals.
The Benefits of Starting to Believe in Yourself
The More You Believe in Yourself the More You’ll Succeed
Learning how to start believing in yourself triggers your mind to figure out ways and means to achieve what you want through a “can-do” attitude. And, science supports this.
With studies showing, that simply believing you can do something or make positive changes in your life increases motivation and action.
If You Believe You Can’t Do Something You Won’t
The opposite of this is that negative beliefs trigger our minds to find ways to back up our negative thoughts.
In other words, when we don’t believe in our chances of success, our minds find as many reasons as possible to support that belief. Because our minds like to reinforce what we already believe.
In doing so, our minds look for and find evidence to support our beliefs whether they’re negative or positive (this is called confirmation bias).
Change Your Beliefs
Your mindset about your ability affects your happiness and success more than anything else. So, make your mind work for you instead of against you. Decide why you can achieve something — not why you can’t.
Research shows our brains are highly adaptable (sometimes referred to as neuroplasticity) — with studies showing we can grow new neural pathways and train our brains to think in new ways (how cool is that!).
Beliefs Are Just Thoughts
All beliefs are thoughts. Thoughts you’ve decided are true — or have repeated enough times to think they’re true.
The good news is that thoughts can be changed.
Because you’ve chosen to believe your negative thoughts, you can choose to change them to positive ones.
In other words, you can change the thoughts you believe to be true.
The Thoughts We Repeat Most Often And With the Most Intensity We Reinforce
This means you can literally hard-wire new beliefs into your mind. And whatever thoughts you no longer use or reinforce will weaken and eventually fade.
Now, please know I’m not saying this is easy. I’m saying it’s possible. And knowing that fact, it’s exciting. No?
Permanently changing your neural pathways requires conscious effort, repetition and dedication, but it’s so worth it.
Yet, what could be more important than dedicating your time and energy towards creating a new neural pathway of self-belief?
How to Start Believing in Yourself Right Now
#TIP 1
Your Mind Believes What You Repeatedly Tell It
So tell your mind you believe in yourself. Write it down. Set a daily reminder on your phone. And repeat to yourself every single day until it becomes an automatic belief.
#TIP 2
Remove Negative Beliefs
Write down five negative beliefs holding you back. Then draw a line through them (this is fun). And replace them with positive beliefs.
E.g. “My negative beliefs are thinking I’m not good enough and never do a good job.” My new positive beliefs are: “I’m more than good enough and better than I think I am.”
#TIP 3
Challenge Your Thoughts
Try to catch yourself whenever you say “I can’t”. Consciously pause and replace it with “I believe I can”.
#TIP 4
Focus on All the Reasons You’ll Succeed Rather Than Fail
When faced with a difficult challenge or task, think about all your skills and past experiences that will help you now. Research shows a specific and purposeful focus on what you’re good at when facing hard tasks leads to the best results.
Learning how to start believing in yourself is an essential ingredient of a happy and successful life. And what’s great is that it’s completely FREE.
Healthy and Happy People Are Not Superhuman
They’re ordinary humans who have developed a belief in themselves and their ability to improve. Never sell yourself short.
Success doesn’t require super-intelligence, magic or luck. It requires tapping into your mind and resetting your beliefs — believing in your heart that you can learn, improve and take action.
Believing in yourself, combined with action can lead to amazing things. By changing the way you see yourself, you can dramatically improve your life.
Have You Ever Thought About How Much Believing in Yourself Affects Your Life?
Imagine how good you’d feel if you truly believed in yourself. If you knew deep down that you could do what it takes to reach your dreams — because you do.
Make Time to Cultivate an Unwavering Belief in Yourself
Spend some time each day rewiring your brain to believe you can succeed and you will.
I truly hope you enjoyed this post and can now see why and how to start believing in yourself.
I’d love to know what it changed for you. So, please drop me a note at becky@beckyholliday.com and let me know.
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Keep believing in yourself.
With love,
Becky x