To succeed as a new entrepreneur, you must believe that you have what it takes. Starting a new business or trying out a new idea in your company takes confidence and courage that entrepreneurs must constantly work at building. However, it is true that every entrepreneur at some point in their lives has had feelings of self-doubt and failure. These moments may wear them down and often leads to a lack of motivation. It is imperative then that entrepreneurs invest time and energy in building confidence just as they would any other aspect of their business.
As a life coach and co-founder of The Coaching Masters, Liam James Collins is known for helping people build confidence. He believes that confidence is developed, not designated. In other words, we aren’t automatically born confident, but it can be learned.
Liam is of the opinion that “most people think that there are confident people in this world and unconfident people. Almost everyone has been designated a certain amount of confidence, and you have to make do with what you’re given. I beg to differ. Confidence is not designated in rations. It’s built.”
How to build confidence
To build confidence, Liam takes his clients through a 3-step process called the confidence triad. The confidence triad focuses on Imagination or internal images, Inner dialogue or internal voice, and Physiology or body posture.
Identify moments of self-doubt.
Self-doubt can weaken your resolve because there’s no one else in your head to talk you down. However, instead of just waiting until the feeling of self-doubt passes, Liam says it is helpful to explore it using the confidence triad. He asks people to focus on the fact that they are not feeling confident at the moment and tells them to describe what they see inside their minds (Internal Images), what they are saying to themselves inside their head (Internal Dialogue) and what their body is going through (Physiology) at the moment.
Identify moments of confidence.
While we all may experience feelings of self-doubt, we also have moments of confidence. Liam asks his clients to think about a time in their life where they were most confident. Doing so will allow them to focus on that time, and by doing so, they will feel confident. In this confident state, it is helpful to complete the same exercise of going through the confidence triad.
The difference will be clear
Completing this exercise helps us to realize that there is a clear difference between self-doubt and confidence. “This shows people that confidence is not this mysterious thing that comes and goes. We can control it by controlling the confidence triad. When we feel confident, we have particular internal dialogues, internal images and body posture. All we need to do is follow the steps for the confidence triad, and we will feel the emotion whenever we want,” shared Liam.
Confidence is earned through doing. It comes from hard work. Confident people are self-aware, and that true confidence they wield is firmly planted in the reality that they’ve created. If you want to change, you need to do an honest and accurate self-assessment of your abilities. Listen for the voice telling you what you cannot do and then work to strengthen those skills.
