[self] belief

The first time I had a Little One, I found it hard. Not the giving birth bit [though wowsers, yes! my friends, that was a challenge. Of the: if.I.did.that.I.can.do.anything type]. But more the after the bit. The coming home and the every day after that. For ages I felt like I had no idea what I was doing. And when I say ages, I mean A-G-E-S.

This time around it has felt heaps easier and I’ve been really curious about why. I think the biggest thing might just be that I know I’ve done it before and that I know [in retrospect] that I did [and continue to do] a really good job of it [according to what matters to me].

As a coach, lovely folk often talk to me about confidence and how to find it. I know that there are several ways to build your own sense of self-efficacy and one of those is Direct Performance Experience [otherwise known as: the more I see I can do it, the more I know I can].

But I know that doesn’t really help when you’re facing something that you’ve never done before. The good news is, there are other ways to build your own self-belief, like: verbal persuasion from others [they think I can so I must be able to!], watching folk who are similar to you do a great job [if she can I can too!] and positive emotional states [I’m feeling great so I’m well prepared to give it a go].

Knowing what boosts your own self-confidence makes you more able to access that self-belief when you really need it.

Tags: babies, confidence, happiness, self, values