The Formula to Building Confidence
The year is 2022. In 2021, 5.4 million new businesses were started. More than 50% of them will fold within 5 years, and of the ones that stay, only 18% will hit 6 figures. Just 2% will hit 7 figures.
The reasons for this? The first is obvious, that most of these new businesses aren’t giving themselves the time to get traction and take off. (This is fixable, by the way…) The second is also understandable, that with the barriers to starting a business today being so low, these budding entrepreneurs don’t have the skills and knowledge they need to run their businesses. (Also fixable, thanks to the quickly growing knowledge economy.) But the last and most common reason feels a little less tangible. It’s a lack of confidence.
If you’ve ever seen a personal development speaker take the stage then you’ll recognize the message that mindset plays a huge role in whether or not a person sees success in whatever they’re pursuing. But if you look a little closer and you take into account the current landscape that entrepreneurs navigate, it’s even more narrow than simply “having the right attitude.”
Today, creators and entrepreneurs are putting their work out into the noisiest world imaginable. Every time they hit “post” they can see in real time whether or not their ideas were well received. They then have the distinct joy of watching other creators, and they have a lovely measuring stick upon which to grade themselves. No, today, the problem is not merely mindset - The problem is a confidence crisis.
Which is exactly why I focus much of my work on helping women build confidence in their businesses - because the statistics show us that confidence is a higher predictor of success than competence. What does this mean? Being great at what you do matters less than thinking you’re great if you’re hoping to be successful. Others watch a person that exudes confidence and that breeds trust for the consumer. And THAT trust creates more income for the business owner, thus further bolstering their confidence.
But it begs the question - how do you build it? As it turns out there’s a simple formula to building confidence, and it works not only for building confidence as it pertains to running a business, but for any area of your life.
POSITIVE SELF TALK + ACTION + REPETITION = CONFIDENCE
- Positive Self Talk - the overlooked and misunderstood step, the one that seems skippable to most. Did you know that your brain produces anywhere from 12,000 to 60,000 thoughts per day? Did you know that 80% of those thoughts are negative in nature, and 95% of those thoughts were repetitive thoughts? What does that mean? Your mind is a negative mixtape on repeat. What you think and say to yourself matters. Thoughts become beliefs which dictate action (or inaction!) Which is why the critical first step in the confidence formula is Positive Self Talk.
- Action - the critical step that MUST happen if one hopes to build confidence. Recall the last time you felt a surge of confidence. Most likely, it came on the coattails of doing something you either thought you couldn’t do, or were afraid to try. If you want to build confidence in something, you must do it. You must prove to yourself that you can do the thing you’re afraid to try. Without this step, confidence is simply an idea or a dream.
- Repetition - How many times have you done something once, only to never do it again? Wasn’t that almost worse? To have put in the effort to prove to yourself you could do something, only to never try it again? The real flex in confidence is doing something on repeat until it becomes easier, much like lifting a weight. Over time, you’ll recognize a task that felt hard in the past no longer feels that way.
It’s through these three steps that true confidence in any area, skill, or thought is built. The question is, can we change the culture of instant gratification? Can we train ourselves to stop comparing our growth to others, which keeps us from pursuing our goals?
That’s the work I’m committed to doing with my clients. If you’d like to dig deeper on the confidence formula, you can listen to the Capture Your Confidence Podcast where we discuss topics related to confidence every week.
Start here:
Positive Self Talk
Action
Repetition