Self-belief is a very important thing to harness in life – it is having confidence in yourself and the trust in your abilities to be able to do things well. Without this personal belief system you can easily be prevented from fulfilling all of your hopes, dreams and goals just by the way you think. Thought processes can be impacted by society, what it deems acceptable and what is expected. Many people fail to believe in themselves purely because of these outside factors. This can, in turn, develop into an ongoing self-fulfilling cycle. However, there are ways that you can start to make a positive influence on yourself, leading to fully believing in your own talents and potential. Self-doubt can be experienced by anyone in any environment or situation. These negative, doubtful thoughts can include worrying about taking a risk and what would happen if you failed. Questioning your own worthiness is also a very common doubt. An example could be that you feel only certain people are deserving of success, perceiving that they are somehow better, smarter or more driven than you. If you do not know how to appreciate yourself and your worth, how can you expect others to do the same?

Society itself can also impact negatively on peoples’ self-belief, confidence and identity, as it has very specific stereotypes and thoughts on almost all areas of life. One of society’s most common and devisive ideals is beauty, declaring a certain look to be the most attractive. Magazines newspapers and the media reinforce this standard daily with airbrushing and Photoshop. However, people have their own tastes and preferences as to what they find attractive, and quite often the judgment of beauty is based upon much more than just the appearance of the person in question. Society can state that happiness is being wealthy with a prestigious career, however, happiness really depends on the preferences of the individual and what they value most in life. All of these topics, along with many others, can impact heavily on your own self-belief and self-worth. Seeing yourself as different to what is classed as “accepted” behaviour, whilst constantly measuring and comparing yourself to others, can negatively affect how you view yourself and where you fit in. To rid yourself of these doubts, remember no one person is more worthy than another – we are meant to live our lives in the way that best suits us. Others may have done things differently to you yet have reached the same level of achievement, however this works both ways and you may have achieved things they may only have dreamed of. Positive thinking can also greatly help with your self-belief. When you are thinking positively, you can experience more positive emotions such as joy, happiness and love. Things you would normally see as challenges could start to look far more positive, morphing into opportunities. You can become more open minded, often resulting in more possibilities and options being made available to you – all things that can only help you achieve your goals in life quicker and more effectively. Negative thinking leads to negative emotions. These can narrow your mind and focus your thoughts on only the cause of the negativity. This constant focus can result in forgetting other things that are happening at the same moment, causing you to overlook the good things. Goals can be much harder to reach when thinking negatively about your abilities in completing them. Having support from others can also help you to build upon your self-belief. We are mostly social creatures, inherently wired to group and work together. When attempting to achieve a goal or gain confidence, try to gravitate towards people who wish you the best and can inspire you. Having someone else believe in your abilities and vision can help to reinforce your own self-belief, making you feel more capable of success. You can try to improve your self-belief by following these 4 top tips! 1 – Try to rid yourself of any negative and limiting ideas or opinions that you may think about yourself. As humans, the large majority of us possess very similar abilities. With the right attitude, attention and determination, you can potentially achieve anything that someone else may already have done. 2 – Your inner negative voice is not naturally yours, it’s a result of past criticisms. Challenge it & eventually you could be able to ignore it. Think about an area that you consider yourself not very good at – and then try to remember where you originally got that idea from. Most negative views of our abilities stem from being told this information by someone else at a younger age. This is most likely where your negative inner voice has come from, formed out of someone else’s opinion. 3 - Don’t become lost in what is wrong about yourself, focus on what is right. Everyone has individual strengths and weaknesses. Focusing in on your strengths allows you to pursue and improve them; your weaknesses can help to guide you to where your true passions lie. 4 – Talk to yourself in the same way you would a friend or loved one. You wouldn’t be mean or cruel to them: it should be no different to yourself.

Remember that you do belong, as you are. Embrace all of your own imperfections and flaws because no one else can ever be you, like you can.