The 12 factors of Business Success: Discover, Develop, and Leverage Your Strengths

Chapter 6. Confidence

"I believe in myself!" Success gurus commonly have their followers chant this affirmation. And it is important to develop strategies that make you more aware of yourself and what you are capable of achieving. If you believe in yourself and your ability to achieve, then you are more likely to be successful in whatever you do.

But typically there are two important pieces left out of this type of belief affirmation. The first is action and the self-trust it creates. Believing in yourself means you are always persistent and that you always persevere. Period. If you don't, then your belief in yourself is worthless. If you don't do things that you promised yourself that you would do, you quickly learn not to trust yourself. Either you can do it or you can't. Either you get the job done or you don't. And your mind knows the truth.

Self-confidence is closely connected to self-discipline. Remember where we started? A recap: Self-discipline is not an attitude or a feeling. It is discipline. It is "do until." Greater self-discipline yields greater self-confidence and self-confidence in the correct proportions is a pillar of success.

The second piece that commonly is left out of the "believe in yourself" mantra is that confidence is a continuum. It is not that you either believe in yourself or you don't. The under confident end of the spectrum gets the most attention, but there are equal dangers on the other end.

The self-confidence continuum looks like this:

←Underconfidence—Confidence— ...