Believe In Yourself

Gram’s Wisdom 34 Believing in you

Should you believe in yourself? The plain answer is no one else will. Try accomplishing anything, and guess what? You will have an uphill climb to your goal. Sure, you will get there eventually, but any doubts you have will make it much more difficult than it needs to be.

You can’t do everything yourself. At some point, you are certain to need the help of someone for something. If you don’t believe in yourself, how will you ever convince others that they can or should?

I think I must have been 12 or 13 when my Gram thought I was old enough to absorb this lesson. This was a tough one for me. I honestly didn’t believe in myself. But I had believed in her all my life.

Gram told me if you believe in yourself, there is little that can stop you from doing whatever you want to accomplish. It gives you the ability to push forward and to defy the odds.

You will be able to handle any hurdles that come your way. You will also be able to disregard the pessimists. It gives you peace of mind when you stick to your self-belief.

A firm belief in yourself can work wonders

It’s vital to believe in yourself

Your spouse and your family will believe in you to a certain degree. However, when times get tough, family support tends to wane. It’s not that they don’t love and care about you. It’s just they stopped believing in you or your dream/goal. While this doesn’t always occur, it often occurs enough to cause disagreement.

When a spouse or parents initially give you support for a new enterprise, there is excitement in the air; they tell you to give it your best shot. When the undertaking doesn’t work out as they believe it should, they begin to question whether you should continue with it. If your belief weakens, you may take on their way of reasoning.

That time is exactly the moment that you shouldn’t stop. People don’t get ahead by quitting. Your belief in yourself should equip you with the ability to tell your friends and family to have some faith. A firm belief in yourself would give you the courage to stand up to them.

Maintaining self-belief takes perseverance

The trouble is, the path towards success in these endeavors is not a straight line. Having some bumps in the road is normal. This is what characterizes the success of the enterprise, and the people who take risks. It should be embraced and not feared. Whatever venture you decide to pursue, know that only by continuing will you make it work.

Don’t take the easy way out. Instead, prepare yourself as much as possible for unfamiliar situations. But move forward with a strong belief that you can accomplish what you set out to do.

Self-belief powers your dreams, desires, and goals

To keep that self-belief strong, you need to describe your goals. You wouldn’t expect a contractor to build a house without a blueprint. You, too, need an outline to guide you on how to continue. Too many people skip this step and wonder why they aren’t getting anywhere.

Goals are your direction but moving ahead with them is only done when you believe that it’s possible. The belief is the momentum you need to act. It helps you to concentrate on getting your tasks complete.

Confidence is built on self-belief

You will also build confidence when you have self-belief. It’s an influential tool and others will be attracted to that confidence. They will follow your lead, and you will help show them what is imaginable. When you stumble over obstacles (and you will), that confidence will help you see them through. You will know how to take alternate actions when necessary. The people following you will appreciate that as well.

Accentuate the positive, eliminate the negative

Several negative forces will try to knock you down. You may even find yourself allowing it to happen. You need to remain focused on why you began your journey in the first place. Use positive affirmations to support your idea. Be consistent with your affirmations.

Unfortunately, many of the negative forces are going to come from your family and friends. They will see it as helping you prevent blunders. Many people will succumb to this negative pressure and give up.

One way to counteract this is to join groups of like-minded individuals. It can be related to your business, or it can be groups that focus on self-help. These organizations exist to try and drive the negative forces out. It’s a good place to go and receive reassurance from the group.

Attending these groups can sometimes lead to friendships with people where you can extend the encouragement of each other. You may even form business collaborations from these friendships. It’s good to know that you have the support of these people when these relationships form. They understand when everyone else around you don’t. Your self-belief will strengthen considerably from this arrangement.

Find others who can motivate and inspire you

The motivation of others can bolster belief in yourself

Think back to a time when someone inspired you. It could be a conference you attended or saw online. You might have read a profile of someone you admired. Whatever the case, the motivation of others can strengthen how you see yourself.

The internet gives us plenty of opportunities to view the stories of high-profile people. Just search on YouTube, and you will find hundreds (if not thousands) of videos of these people sharing their experiences. You will find books covering the same subject. However, there's usually more detail in books rather than in a video. Therefore, you should take advantage of both.

Don’t mistake motivation and inspiration for necessary action 

It’s important to have others who help inspire and motivate you. However, if you place them too high on a pedestal, you may find it difficult to motivate yourself. You begin to suppose these people have an innate ability that you don’t possess. That is counterproductive. You need to recognize they all began the same as you. Some may have had initial advantages, but even people with these advantages don’t always excel. Most people still need to work hard to reach their goals.

Another issue is spending too much time listening or reading about people who motivate you. You must take appropriate action to move ahead with your own goals. It is useful to be motivated by others, but you need to do more than go to seminars or read books. None of that matters unless you put in the effort yourself. Once that happens, others may come to you one day to say how you helped motivate them.

My final thought

Self-belief is one of the most valuable things you can do for your life and yourself. It’s not easy to think positively about yourself when you are besieged on all sides by negativity. But to believe in yourself is certainly worth any effort you make.

For additional information, please read this post by Soul Salt.

How to Believe in Yourself

I hope you enjoyed this post and will share it with people you love. 

9 Best Mindsets for Success

What are the 9 best mindsets for a successful life? I offer you a summary of the most popular mindsets to help you live a successful life.

Many of the ones listed here go by different names or are parts of subsets. So, when, looking at successful people you will find they possess several of these mindsets.

You won’t find greed, sloth, envy, or anything like that here. I couldn’t imagine other than rare instances finding life success within the framework of such negativity.

I am also adding a link to Five Mindsets That Will Transform Your Life by Marelisa Fabrega. Her number five Entrepreneurial mindset is a must-see for anyone who is or desires to become an entrepreneur.

What is an abundance mindset?

When you have an abundance mindset you notice as you look at the natural world that there is a profusion of things. Leaves on trees, sands on the beach, birds in the sky, air to breathe. There is no scarcity, earth has not withheld its gifts. There is plenty for all.

An abundance mentality focuses on this and is grateful for the richness they have in life, rather than on what may be lacking. The abundance personality opens the mind as well as their eyes seeing possibilities that others miss. By the expansion of their awareness, they can discover more opportunities, more choices, and more means to receive what they need. 

Have you got an active mindset?

The persons with an active mindset choose to be in control of their lives. They are also the people who see, hear, think, “Hey, something should be done” and then they go out and do it.

The individuals who are active thinkers are change-makers. They know what you learn is useless if you don’t apply it. They are constant tinkerers. Always working to improve an idea or a thing. Always believing they can make it better.

Sure, action takers will stumble at times. But they own their mistakes and pick themselves up because they know the only way to go forward is to continue moving. Accomplishment motivates the person with an active mindset. You will seldom find these people behaving in a lazy or unfocused manner.

Find here a link to my last post Is Your Mindset Naturally Active or Passive?

Do you have a courageous mindset?

The courageous mentality will have you leaving your comfort zone in search of new heights. Mistakes can be made, but the experiences are rewards for these risk-takers.

People with a courageous mindset see the minefields and have the same fears everyone else has. The difference is courageous people will face their fears and move beyond them. They see courage as a choice you make where the decisions are such that can have a profound impact on their lives.

Those who are courageous believe it’s cowardly to stay where they are never becoming more than they are out of an unwillingness to embrace opportunities. Courage is doing what is uncomfortable, boring, and frustrating in the face of your insecurity and fear of failure. And if you desire to make changes in life, it’s courage that lets you alter your mindset.

What is a creative mindset?

The creative individual is open, tolerant, and non-judgmental. Ideas need space to enter and room to breathe when they have arrived. A creative mindset taps into imagination with a child’s sense of curiosity.

A creative person is unique, they look and think about things differently. The creative person is resourceful and frequently a problem solver. The flip side of that is they often over-complicate simple things.

Creativity is ingenuity used to make things better. It’s what makes innovation occur. Creative individuals just do it; painters, paint; writers, write; musicians, play. Creatives believe that to be happy and successful, they must live up to their potential.

What benefits do you derive from a grateful mindset?

A present moment appreciation is where grateful thoughts come from. A grateful mindset may need to begin with a scheduled time for you to think about what you are grateful for.

Don’t forget gratitude for the people in your life. The kind neighbor, your best friend, your family members. The more you practice being grateful the more there is to be grateful for. You can verbally express your thankfulness or write it down.

There is no right or wrong way in the expression of gratitude. Being thankful frequently throughout your day expands the practice of gratitude. Noticeably the glass becomes half full. You see life more positively. As a result, you find more peace, happiness, and contentment.

How do you develop a growth mindset?

A growth mindset is a belief that you can learn and improve yourself, that with effort and persistence, you can succeed.

Persons with a growth mindset are less concerned about looking smart, instead, they take the time to study and become smart. Like a sponge, they absorb as much knowledge as possible with a view to developing into experts in their field.

Growth-minded persons struggle with obstacles along the way like anyone else, but they view those difficulties as opportunities for their growth. They view the success of others as motivation.

Growth-minded individuals expand their knowledge to include learning from theirs and other’s mistakes, and they freely appreciate constructive criticism believing it furthers their growth.

And here because no one says it better than Carol Dweck.

Changing our beliefs can have a powerful impact. The growth mindset creates a powerful passion for learning. “Why waste time proving over and over how great you are,” Dweck writes, “when you could be getting better?”

From <https://fs.blog/2015/03/carol-dweck-mindset/>

How can you create a positive mindset?

Positive thinking is the habit of expecting the best from yourself, others, and any given situation.

The positive mentality focuses on the present moment extracting what is good in the now. It doesn’t dwell on the negativity of past hurts or future imagined slights.

Positive thinkers understand that an upbeat attitude, not only boosts your confidence but enhances your mood.

Positivity can help you be healthy of mind and body. When you think better, you feel better. When you feel better, you act better. The actions you take as self-care or exercise make you feel better which helps you think better.

Your positive mindset can also play a positive role in any stress-related illnesses you may have.

A positive mindset is optimistic, this provides you with improved coping skills. The positive thinker makes the effort to shut down negative self-talk by spinning a new inner dialog.

Why is a self-belief mindset important?

Self-belief is an attitude of confidence in your judgment and capabilities. No one is born with self-belief. Individuals start developing a self-belief mindset as they grow up.

Self-belief is established from small challenges that progressively build to larger ones. To achieve this skill, you must develop competency in your ability to learn and your resourcefulness. People without this skill often fall prey to limiting beliefs.

Without self-belief, you will never be able to stand out from the crowd, make your own decisions or assert yourself. Having self-belief allows you to attempt new or difficult things. Self-belief impacts your satisfaction, success, and contentment.

The confidence you gain from self-belief aids your ability to move past mistakes without excessively blaming yourself. People who have a positive self-belief can lead and inspire others to do their best.

“Never be limited by other people’s limited imaginations.”

— Mae Jemison

What is a visionary mindset?

Visionaries value their imagination and will have a big dream. Big enough to be thrilling and scary at the same time.

The visionary mindset pays attention to intuition and embraces change. As a dreamer, you know what you want from your future.

A visionaries’ goals are often the vehicle for their service to others. What was once the big idea to benefit themselves, frequently becomes the seed they grow to help humanity.

Visionaries never give up on their dream. They understand there will be trials, but they push through them making needed adjustments until the dream is fulfilled.

Dreamers are confident, they feel they will achieve success, but understand it is the journey that helps their development and growth as human beings.

The visionary has a positive attitude and radiates positive energy. They are regularly surrounded by like-minded people.

My final thought

Noticeably, all these mindsets have 2-4 subsets in common. Growth, positivity, service to others, and gratitude. If you have any three or more of these mindsets you are already likely succeeding in life.

“Change your mindset, change the game.”

— Dr. Alia Crum

Thank you for reading this post. I hope you see yourself in some of these mindsets. Even more, I hope you are inspired to adopt another of these fulfilling mindsets.