How To Build Unshakable Self-Belief

Whenever you see someone become successful or achieve their dreams, there is an underlying notion that they possess an unshakable amount of self-belief.

That is because there is also an underlying notion of self-delusion that comes along with chasing your dreams, so when someone gets there, self-belief is the preferred term.

We’d all like to believe in ourselves more, whether it’s to chase our wildest dreams or to simply believe we are capable of a promotion or able to lose weight. 

It doesn’t matter what our goals are, if we do not believe we can achieve them, we’d never bother trying to begin with.

That is how important self-belief is when it comes to any form of improvement.

The problem is, that people think they're stuck with the amount of self-belief they have, whether they believe they're born with it or have it due to a consequence of things out of their control. Either way, don’t believe they have the ability to build it, grow it or create it.

These people are wrong.

Misconceptions

This isn’t going to be a blog about screaming into the mirror until you magically believe anything is possible.

Although I believe the subconscious mind is always listening and that negative self-talk can greatly affect your confidence and self-belief, simply shouting affirmations into the mirror won’t work. 

To give an example I have previously used, imagine two people making a claim “I’m going to hit a bullseye for the first time” in a game of darts. One is a professional darts player who practises 7 days a week, and two is someone who has made that same statement 100 times in the mirror during the week leading up to it.

Who do you think processes the highest levels of self-belief when making that claim? And who do you think has the highest chance of actually hitting bullseye? 

Confidence and self-belief do not come from shouting affirmations, they come from evidence.

Bold claims without proof are delusional, yet all dreams are bold. So to make chasing our dreams less delusional, we need to work on getting proof.

Building Self-Belief

So how does one work on getting proof? 

This might be a little more complicated than you think, to be confident in hitting a bullseye, one has to work on the ability to hit the bullseye, but what about long-term difficult goals and dreams?

This is where it gets a little tricky, as you can’t necessarily do the thing to believe you can do the thing.

So, it has to be built in other ways, so let's start from ground zero.

So let’s take someone who has never really worked on themselves before as an example, someone who has never considered chasing their dreams, never really looked after their physical or mental health.

They’ve built up enough frustration and dissatisfaction with their current situation that they decide to leave it all behind for a much different life, they decide to chase the life of their dreams.

This looks like financial freedom, living where they want, being in the shape of their life and just beaming with confidence. Essentially, they want to be unrecognisable.

This person has no evidence-based reasons to suggest they are capable of doing any of it, so how do they build self-belief? 

From ground zero, self-belief can be built through avenues that are indirect to the one wanted.

What I mean is, that you are able to build belief in one thing, by doing something else, like that business you’ve always wanted to pursue. You could start believing you could achieve it by breaking down limiting self-beliefs with exercise, for example.

Like I said, self-belief is proof, so once you start proving yourself wrong in one sense, you start believing you can do the same in others.

Actionable Steps

What this looks like practically is starting small, picking things that are productive and challenging, and tackling them.

Whether you're at ground zero or not, it doesn't matter, what matters is you choose things that are above your current level, work towards them, and defeat them.

You then move up, choose another task, tackle it, and so on.

This is how you gather evidence, this is your proof, by winning enough times, you build enough self-belief to start going after the impossible, but at that point, it’s no longer impossible.

If confidence is proof, you can imagine how important it is to stick to your promises, no matter how small. If you say you're going to run 2 miles, but you stop after 1.5, why would you be confident saying you're going to achieve the bigger things? Stick to every promise you make!

As simple as this sounds written down, it’s not easy, continuously challenging yourself is a battle, but it is one that’s easy to fall in love with.

So, whatever level you’re currently at, if building more self-belief is something that interests you, start challenging yourself, whether through exercise, diet challenges, meditation, study, or anything else.