How to Succeed at Something New

I remember when I started college, I was 16 years old, and I desperately wanted to perform well; it was all so new to me...I was so young; I didn't know what the future held. However, after my first semester, I had a 4.0, my confidence had grown immensely, and there was no holding me back after that....In order to succeed at something new, you must first succeed in gaining confidence...there is no success without confidence.

Where Does Confidence Come From?

In short, confidence comes from previous successes; a history of prior success, is the source of confidence.Let me explain.If people are always complementing you, I don’t care if it’s on a batch of brownies, or how good your hair smells, you will quite simply have confidence in that area.

Confidence is birth from consistent achievement, which means that those who have lots of confidence, tend to become even more confident with the passage of time, while those who have little confidence, often grow even less assured of their abilities as they get older.

The Chicken or the Egg?

So how do you join the ranks of the confident if you’re not already confident? How do you get off the “Low Confidence Trolley,” and on to the “High Confidence Train?”

Well, if my theory is correct, you must first have success, before you can have confidence.  

But how is this even possible.

We’re faced with the age old question, “Which comes first, the chicken or the egg?” Which comes first confidence, or success?

The Answer

This much is clear, in order to join the ranks of the confident, you have to have prior success, however, in order to have success, you have to be confident, which tells me that the only way to succeed is to begin with a task that you are already confident that you can complete, successfully.

In other words, you may not feel confident that you can make an extra $1,000 per month, but you may have had success making an additional $10 per month, start there, have success, gain confidence, and work your way up.

You may not feel confident that you could lose 30 pounds/kilograms, but you may have had success losing one pound/kilogram, start there, have success, gain confidence, and work your way up.

You may not feel confident giving a 60 minute keynote speech in front of a large audience, but you may have had success in front of an audience of two, start there, have success, gain confidence, and work your way up.

Confidence is faith that you will succeed, because you have succeeded before.

Confidence is knowing that if you did it right last week, you can do it right this week. You gain confidence by starting with a little goal, achieving that goal, and then repeating this process, over, and over, and over again.

In Closing

The secret to success is to start small, if you go after a goal that is too large, without the confidence (i.e. bandwidth to support you), you will inevitably fail. You can only do what you believe you can do, so you have to start where you are…and know that if you’re consistent, you will one day become that which you are destined to be.