Being Confident

How often do you lose out on opportunities because you don’t feel good enough or are too timid to take action? Actually, things like this happen to a lot of people on a regular basis. And not being confident is often the reason.

In fact, I am a shining example of the results of a lack of confidence. Sure, I may be successful today. But it wasn’t like that in the very beginning. And in reality, I still could work on boosting the image I have of myself.

Today, I’ll go into detail about being confident and why it’s important to you in virtually any career or life choice.

Why is Being Confident Important?

Confidence goes a long way toward improving a variety of things in your life. From the work you pick up to meeting that special someone, how you view yourself is vital.

And that’s what confidence centers around: the way you look at yourself, especially in public.

Now, it is possible for someone who lacks self-confidence to gain a bit of success. But it’s far more difficult to maintain if you don’t have faith in yourself and your abilities.

Having a high opinion of yourself can…

Lead to Making More Money

Being sure of yourself can easily lead to roads that help you make more money. This is especially true when it comes time to renegotiate contracts, ask for raises, or look for higher-paying jobs.

Because you have a better understanding of who you are and what you can do, you are more apt at knowing your value. Just be mindful not to think too highly of yourself and charge too much.

The more often I view myself as a professional, the more likely people toss money my way. I can charge quite a bit more than I have before because I know my value and what I bring to the table.

However, I still offer a balance in terms of a fair price.

Attract a More Trusting Audience

When you’re sure of yourself and your abilities, it’s far easier to attract a larger and loyal audience. In fact, you can see this easily with politicians. Most of them exude confidence to the point of being cocky.

As a writer, having an audience is imperative. This is true whether you’re writing for yourself or a client. Because the client’s audience is your audience. And confidence easily bleeds through content.

A lot of people will watch my Textbroker videos on YouTube because I know what I’m talking about. Through extensive experience in the system, I can share insights and information quite easily. In this case, my confidence in the topic is pronounced.

The result is an audience that is engaged and interested.

Lead to Great Opportunities

Being confident can open doors you didn’t know were possible or even available. And I’m not just talking about your career path, either. When you’re confident in your life, you’ll meet people and do things that you normally wouldn’t.

Doing the WordCamps for GreenGeeks has been a great experience for me. It’s vastly improved my social interaction with others. For one thing, I am now more likely to strike up conversations with random people on the street.

You never know who you’re gonna talk to. Perhaps it’s a new opportunity to make money or the love of your life. But you won’t know that until you feel confident in yourself to make that move.

5 Ways to Boost Being Confident without Seeming Conceited

Boosting Self Confidence

To be honest, I feel a bit weird talking about self-confidence. After all, I’m not exactly the pinnacle of being confident in various aspects of my life.

I still struggle with impostor syndrome on a daily basis. However, I’ve made vast improvements over the years. In fact, I am a completely different person today than I was back in 2012.

So, what are some ways I made a change to my level of self-confidence?

1. Change Your Mindset

Perhaps the most difficult is to change your overall mindset. This is something that could take years of hard work to accomplish. And I know first-hand how hard it is to change.

A lot of people stress over things like failing, being rejected, or not performing at peak efficiency. It’s this stress, though, that holds you back in most cases.

If you get rejected, move on. If a client doesn’t like a piece of content, adapt. There are plenty of opportunities out in the world today, and focusing too intently on one instance will only cause you to stress out.

Which, then, often leads to mistakes and keeps you in that stressed-out state of mind.

2. Focus More on Successes Rather Than Failures

Don’t dwell on having a bad day. No one is ever going to have “good” days 100% of the time. Instead of being consumed by a failure, focus more on the successes. Even the small ones will make you feel better about yourself.

When I received my first rejection in Textbroker, it was heartbreaking. But once I focused more on the pieces clients loved instead of the one rejection, things seemed to flow better.

After all, what’s one rejection compared to more than 3,000 articles clients gave raving reviews on? That’s a success rate of 99.95% of the time…which is quite the accomplishment when you think about it that way.

3. Be Honest with Yourself

One of my favorite sayings is, “This, above all, to thine own self be true.” And it is possible to be honest with yourself without being overly brutal.

For example, deep down, I know I produce great work for my clients. My stats should easily prove that to me. I know my limits and what I can handle. I also own my successes and failings.

Quit denying yourself and others of who you truly are. The result is often someone who is more confident in themselves while understanding his or her strengths and weaknesses.

4. Push Your Perceived Limits

A “perceived” limit is one you’ll put on yourself without having real evidence that it’s indeed a limit. It’s quite common in children followed by the statement, “I can’t do this.” In most cases, they can once they try.

I see a lot of potentially good writers get entrenched within their own ideas of limitations. And until you step out of your comfort zone, you’ll never really know just how far you can take a situation.

This goes beyond just being a writer, though. Perhaps you have an eye on a specific job, or have a bit of a crush on someone at work. If you don’t go beyond what you think is a limit, you won’t go very far.

And this often results in a person being confident in themselves as well as outside of that perceived comfort zone.

5. Accomplish Your Goals

One thing that has helped me greatly over the years is accomplishing goals. Every time I succeed, it builds onto my overall opinion of myself in virtually any task.

The trick, though, is to create realistic goals for yourself. Because you can say that you want a million dollars per year from writing. But very few will actually make even close to that amount.

Instead, focus more on what you can do today that puts you ahead of yesterday. Personally, I use a spreadsheet and track every minute and every word I produce. Then, it’s my goal to surpass those numbers.

I’m all about breaking personal bests. Words, income, time spent writing, and more are all goals I try to break on a daily, weekly, and even yearly basis. Then again, I’m a bit of a dork when it comes to spreadsheets.

You’re not in competition with anyone else but yourself.

I try not to have the expectation that my team of writers can offer my level of expertise. As long as they work on improving their own abilities, that’s all that really matters.

Once you start accomplishing your own realistic goals, you’ll start being more confident in your abilities. You’ll have a track record of yourself displaying what you’re really capable of handling.

Being Confident isn’t the Same as Being Conceited

Now, there is a bit of a danger to boosting your confidence too high. Some people will actually become more conceited and arrogant over time. And no one wants to work with those people.

Arrogance can easily lead to failing to land good jobs, happy relationships, and family interactions. It’s when you start boasting about your accomplishments that lays the groundwork for conceit.

I try to be humble when expressing what I can offer clients, viewers, and blog readers. I don’t rub it in that I can do X amount of words per day. Instead, I explain how I had to work hard to get to that point.

A nice guy doesn’t have to say he’s a nice guy. It’s shown through action and behavior.

Being Confident is About Trusting Yourself

If you don’t trust yourself, you’ll have a far more difficult time succeeding in anything. Being confident starts with understanding who you are and what you can do. Often, it takes a bit of time to get yourself to that point.

Don’t expect an instant change. I’ve been doing this for more than eight years and I still have my moments of not having faith. But, I can say it will get better as long as you are serious about changing.

Take some time and focus on yourself. It’s not selfish to understand who you are. And once you realize your potential, your point of view starts to change and you can actually physically feel the difference in your life.

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