Like every other skill, quality, or attribute, self-confidence too improves under certain conditions and fades away in others. Being jobless, or being continually rejected in interviews, can severely dampen one's spirit and hurt his or her confidence.

Low self-confidence greatly reduces the chances of success in most spheres of life. As is already well known to you, strong self-confidence is one of the most important influencing factors in winning job interviews. However, what may not be so well known is the fact that confidence naturally dwindles under continued adverse situations, and neglecting to culture self-confidence can set up a vicious cycle where you fail because you lack confidence, and you lose confidence because you fail. The good news is self-confidence can be consciously cultured and this article provides some tips to do so.

What you lose when you show lack of confidence

You won't find any takers. That's the first thing that will happen if you show lack of confidence. And that includes both you and your ideas. Even the most brilliant and groundbreaking proposal coming from a nervous and fumbling person would find it hard to be accepted by anybody, unless someone out there is truly an outstanding decision-maker. You will rarely find top-notch people holding first rounds of job interviews, and thus few interviewers would care to look past your lack of confidence to judge your true potential.

How to keep your self-confidence in shape

Achieve tasks that are not routine work:

Self-confidence thrives on positive thinking and it is possible to strengthen your confidence with mental affirmations. The best tonic for self-confidence is achievement, however minute that might be. One of the easiest ways to feed yourself your daily doses of achievement is to set short-term targets and achieve them within time and with the desired quality. Even finishing a letter to your grandma can help to boost your self-confidence, if you set a time to finish it, and properly complete it by the targeted time. Achieving targets and completing tasks outside routine work help to keep our confidence in shape.

Routinely revisit the best phases of your life:

Create a log of your achievements starting from the time you first gave the correct answer to your primary school teacher. Mark out at least ten events that you consider as achievements in your life, and those that you think required you to excel yourself. Go over those moments in your mind and relive them.

Describe those events in writing. Regularly read the log of your successes and keep adding to the log. Every person has moments of achievements, whether succeeding in rescuing somebody's pet or helping a team to take the correct decision. Going through your successes helps to keep your confidence in shape.

Control your mind:

Actively push out negative thoughts that can lower your self-esteem and focus on the job at hand or your future targets. Engage your spare time in constructive work or in useful inexpensive hobbies that require you to learn and achieve. Do not give yourself idle time, for as they say, an idle brain is a devil's workshop and the devil revels in breeding despair. Shrug off things that you cannot do anything about and focus on what you can do. Commit yourself to success and you will be able to overcome seemingly insurmountable barriers. Confidence is the key.

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