When it comes to achieving your dreams, how much thought have you given to believing in yourself first?
If, like most of us, you haven’t given it a lot of thought, this scientifically proven insight will surprise and delight you.
And because this is so important and I care about you and your happiness. I’m offering you a chance to get a place on the course you need to find your self-belief. Plus much more. And so you don’t miss out, you can join the waiting list instantly below.
Now, you’ve done that, let’s dive into how you can start believing in yourself right now.
Believing in yourself is an untapped superpower.
The wonderful thing about this superpower is that we all have it available to us. We can all learn to believe in ourselves. It doesn’t cost anything or rely on any particular circumstances to work.
And to be honest, I’m searching for my self-belief again right now. As I embark on my new venture of creating this health and wellness blog and business.
I’m having to dig deep to find a whole new level of self-belief. I know it doesn’t matter how much I want something, if I don’t believe I can achieve it, then I won’t.
Believing in yourself and that 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 save more money, whilst deep down believing it’s impossible is not the same as knowing in your heart you can save money and that it’s not impossible.
When people wish, they don’t learn what it takes—the behaviour, actions, skills—to get them to where they want to be. Because they believe deep down it’s impossible their mind doesn’t look for solutions and they don’t put in the work required.
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 and happy. I suppose I can give it another go, but I know I’ll slip up like always.”
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’ll do this as long as I find a sustainable (not restricting) way of eating. I appreciate I’ll make mistakes but I’m not aiming for perfection, I’m aiming to get a little bit better every day.”
What is believing in yourself?
Choosing to believe in yourself, is knowing deep in your heart that with hard work, dedication and focus, you can make your dreams a reality. And contrary to popular belief, it’s not about never failing. It’s knowing that when you do fail (because we all do), you have the ability within yourself to learn what you need to and then get back up and try again.
Belief works like this: It’s effectively a mantra you say to yourself along the lines of “I know I can”. A positive attitude towards yourself that generates the internal determination, focus and energy required to achieve what you want.
And maybe more important than believing in yourself, is the belief that you can improve. The belief in yourself that you have what it takes to learn, master the skills and do everything you need to do to achieve your goals.
This is known as having a growth mindset—and research shows that those who believe they can improve, do. They see continuous improvement in their skills, achievements and success.
The Benefits of Believing in Yourself
The more you believe in yourself the more you’ll succeed.
Strong positive beliefs trigger your mind to figure out ways and means to achieve what you want through a can-do attitude. Science supports this too! Studies show 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.
Negative beliefs trigger our minds to find ways to back up our negative beliefs. In other words, disbelief is a negative energy—when we don’t believe in our chances of success, our minds find reason to support that belief.
Our minds tend to reinforce what we already believe. In other words, we look and find evidence to support our beliefs (known as confirmation bias).
Importantly, our beliefs about ourselves can change.
Your mindset about your own ability affects your happiness and success more than nearly 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!).
The good news is that all beliefs are thoughts. Thoughts that you’ve decided are true (or have repeated enough times to think they’re true!).
Because you’ve chosen to believe your negative thoughts. It means you can change your choice.
In other words, you can change the thoughts you believe to be true. Choosing to replace your negative thoughts with positive ones.
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 we no longer use or reinforce will get weak and eventually fade.
Now, please know, I’m not saying that this is easy. I’m saying it’s possible. And knowing that fact, well 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 believe in yourself:
- Your mind believes what you repeatedly tell it. So tell your mind that 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.
- Remove negative beliefs. Write down five negative beliefs holding you back. Then put a massive line through them (this is fun!). You should then replace them with positive beliefs. E.g. My negative beliefs are thinking I’m not good enough and that I never do a good job. My new positive beliefs are that I’m more than good enough and I’m better than I think I am.
- Challenge your thoughts. Try to catch yourself whenever you say “I can’t”. Consciously pause and replace it with “I believe I can”.
- When faced with a difficult challenge or task, focus on all the reasons you’ll succeed rather than fail. For example, think about the skills you have and past experiences that will help you now. Research shows that a specific and purposeful focus on what you’re good at when facing difficult tasks leads to the best results!
Belief in yourself is the essential ingredient in successful and happy people. And what’s great, is that it’s free to us all.
Successful happy people are not superhuman.
They’re simply ordinary humans (we’re all humans after all!) 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—knowing that in your heart you truly believe in yourself and your ability to 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 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.
Take the time to cultivate an unwavering belief in yourself. Re-wire your brain to believe you can succeed, and you will.
I hope you enjoyed this post. I’d love to know what it changed for you. Drop me a note at becky@beckyholliday.com and let me know.
I share more tips like this every Wednesday in my FREE newsletter. So, be sure to subscribe below. And if you sign up today, you’ll get instant access to a powerful guide that’ll help you boost your happiness and health in less than 5 minutes a day.
Never forget you’re MORE than enough.
With love,
Becky x
