The world of business is harsh, cut-throat and brutal. If you show weakness, it will be exploited. If you slow down, you’ll be left behind. It’s no place for the weak or weary – it demands excellence every day. But no one can be their best self on a daily basis. It takes a superhuman to have no weakness and to always have the drive and motivation to succeed. Or, it takes a very clever liar to convince themselves that they have all that and more.

When it comes to being an entrepreneur, you need an endless supply of confidence. Unfortunately, confidence can wane. Bad days can turn into bad weeks. Unexpected events can take place which no preparation can stave off, such as global pandemics.

So, how do you keep yourself from doubting your own abilities? You can’t. There will always be some amount of doubt, even in the form of common sense. A good business doesn’t need a leader without faults – it needs someone who can turn their faults into fortune.

Here are five ways on how to turn inevitable self-doubt into the fuel that burns the self-propelled engine of self-confidence:

1. Control Your Emotions

Self-doubt can creep up when you’re experiencing a long-lasting sadness. Perhaps from staring at too many financial reports or reading too many industry news articles. The world can beat you down and there’s no way to stop it without disconnecting. You can’t stop the world from turning, but you can influence your emotions.

Thoughts are what drive emotion. Having negative thoughts generates negative emotion, which in turn leads to negative feelings. “Stay positive” is not a hollow mantra, it’s practical science. Keeping positive thoughts and focusing on positive memories – such as your past success or the best-case scenario for future plans – will keep you happy, and confidence will soon follow.

2. Turn Can’t into Can

The mind is a fickle, tricky thing. On one hand, it fully controls all of our decisions, sometimes without us knowing or understanding why. The psychology of behaviour is a deep field that has yet to reach a bottom – a true root theory connecting all human behaviour together under a set of strict rules. Yet, it is also surprisingly simple. When we think something, we believe it. 

The mind listens to itself and will believe whatever is put into it to some degree. This is true of the psychology of learning and the psychology of meditation. By thinking something is impossible, the brain will teach the subconscious mind and the body that it is, in fact, impossible. The rest of the body will then follow suit and when such an obstacle is approached, the subconscious mind will already think it can’t be done and lead to a series of behaviours that lock the body up from trying. 

Instead of thinking with “can’t” or “won’t”, replace them with thoughts of what you can do. Work around impossible problems until you can make them possible again.

3. Embrace Positivity

It takes a special kind of person to laugh at their own jokes without fail. They are either inherently positive and charismatic, or they’re insane. Fortunately, inherent positivity is learnable, as is good humour. Keeping a positive attitude is sometimes difficult to bear from within, but embracing the positivity of others is much easier.

It’s not healthy to have nothing but yes men or jokesters in your life, but some are better than none. Don’t be afraid to make or take a joke here and there and always look on the brighter side of what’s happening. Dark humour is a coping mechanism for good reason – it allows us to approach difficult situations with humour, which is a destressor and emotional controller that we need to face the harsher aspects of the world. 

Don’t be afraid to smile. Enjoying life is never a weakness.

4. Lie To Create Truth

They say “fake it until you make it”, put forward a fact that you want to be true – whether it is or not – until others believe it. Doing this requires a level of confidence that some might find deranged depending on what fact you’re trying to turn into a truth. Some things just can’t be believed, the science and facts of the world are too rigid to be denied that hard. But when it comes to self-image and self-confidence, a little lie can go a long way.

It’s called a “self-fulfilling prophecy”. As mentioned earlier, if you think you can’t do something, your brain will agree. That’s how the brain works. Using that logic against it, you can just lie to yourself – say that you can do something, that you are the best, the greatest, that you will get everything done as it’s asked of you, because you’re the best one to do it. And you’ll believe it. 

Believing what you think about yourself is true will, in turn, make it truer. Some lies take more hard work than others to fulfil, but if you stick to them, you will eventually turn total falsehoods into plain, apparent truth.

5. Reward Your Own Accomplishments

Every good deed deserves a reward, even if they don’t come naturally. A paycheck is a reward, time off is a reward, but who gives them to you? Who’s there to pat you on the back and congratulate you for the small accomplishments that make up the important days? Usually, no one. But you’re always there for yourself.

Set expectations, and when you reach them, reward yourself with something rare. Having dessert every day is just a habit, it’s normal and it deprives the brain of necessary feedback to associate the sweet feeling with a reward. Reserving desserts only for pity parties and harsh times associates them with suffering. But tying things you love to success and accomplishment makes them more worthy and gives your brain a boost that instead gets associated with your own effort. That builds confidence, because you’ve earned celebration where instead you’d just earn extra pounds.

To your success,

Mario

[Visit www.mariosingh.com now to enjoy a FREE e-book of my latest “37 Essential Principles for Massive Success” when you subscribe!]