Are you a confident person? Do you want to be a confident person?
Most people would have some hesitations in answering the first question. However, the answer to the second question will be a resounding YES for the majority of people.
Everyone wants to be and feel confident. However, you need to be more specific with your answer to have any real impact.
The reason is, if you really want to improve your confidence level, you need to quantify it. You need to be able to define the activities for which you need to be more confident so that you can perform it successfully.
A mere wish to be confident won’t give you any results. You also need clarity on when you want it achieved!
Different people might have different views on what does self-confidence means to them.
A child might want more self-confidence so that he can repeat from memory a story in front of his class the next morning.
A businesswoman might want to improve her self-confidence to deliver a flawless presentation in front of her top client for a multi-million dollar project.
For an employee, self-confidence might mean having more courage to make the move from his secure job to become independent and start his own business.
To reach their goals, these people need to raise their confidence to the next level, so that they can face the challenges along the way.
Do you have tasks to do that you think requires a level of confidence above and beyond your current assuredness? Let us check it out!
Here is a simple questionnaire where you have to answer with YES or NO. The answers to this questionnaire can help you gauge your level of self-assurance.
- Do you often doubt your ability to make a decision yourself, and often look to other people, colleagues, friends, or family to decide for you?
- Are you dependent on other people to feel secure and seems to need a constant support system for encouragement?
- In your office meetings, do you just passively sit and listen all the time?
- Do you find it difficult to openly share your idea with your superiors and colleagues, even though you think that your plan will affect the company positively?
- Are you frighten to make contact with someone new? Do you feel stressed when asked to give a speech in public speaking?
- Do you find it hard to say no, and apprehensively do whatever your superior or anyone else asked you to do, even though you don’t have the time nor the wherewithal to do them?
- Are you exceptionally self-conscious and unreasonably concerned about what other people’s opinion of you?
- Are you afraid of taking risks?
- Are you displeased with the way you look?
- Do you feel awkward in social settings and being among a lot of people you don’t necessarily know?
If you answer with a lot of YES to these questions, you will significantly benefit from improving and increasing the level of your self-confidence. If you fail to fix your confidence level, you’ll find it increasingly difficult to execute your tasks, let alone achieving your goals successfully.
But don’t panic. Now that you’re aware of your need to improve your self-confidence let’s work on the solutions.
Here are some more questions to help you.
- Do you have any accomplishments in the past?
- When you’re at a new place, do you wait for someone else to initiate a discussion, or are you the one to go ahead and break the ice?
- Do you feel that other people respect you well?
- Do you think you can succeed?
- Are you a happy and loving person?
- Are you pleased with your career path?
- Are you contented with your skills and abilities?
- Do you think you’re in control of your life?
- Do you believe you’ll be more successful five years from now?
- Do you deem yourself worthwhile?
If you happen to answer most of these questions with a NO, you have LOW self-confidence levels.
However, a YES is never decisive, and a NO is never final. One needs to continually maintain the good points and work towards converting bad points into good points. Moreover, the good news is that it is very much possible.
It’s important that you honestly answer the questions above, since only when you realize the present status of your self-confidence would you be working towards building self-confidence or maintaining and increasing your current levels.