We’ve been talking about how you develop your confidence – and how to get it back if you lose it.  One thing I know is that: The best way to keep confidence is preparation.

A team that practices well will go into a game prepared.  If you do enough study for a test, you’ll feel good about taking it.  If you do research before hand – you’ll feel confident going into your sales call or proposal.

So how are you about that?  Do you usually go into situations feeling prepared – or do you set yourself up for a crisis of confidence?  If you often send yourself in unprepared – why do you think you do that?  It’s worth thinking about.

What about when you lose your confidence?  How do you build it back up?

There were some great ideas and suggestions in yesterday’s post. The journals, dream boards, post it notes, affirmations and other suggestions help program your subconscious mind with positive belief.

It’s nice to have friends, colleagues, or teammates who will give you positive reinforcement.  But that can present another problem.

If you count on other people to build up your confidence – you leave yourself open to letting other people take it away from you.  Don’t get me wrong.  If you can have supportive people around you, that’s wonderful.  But real self-confidence is an inside job.

Only you can make yourself feel confident.  Especially after you have experienced a setback.  So how can you regain confidence?  Here are some things I can suggest:

* Make sure you have done the necessary preparation.
* Think about what you learned from your setback that will help you this time.
* Think about the worst-case scenario if you fail.  Ninety-nine percent of the time, it’s really not that bad.
* Visualize a successful outcome in your mind.
* Create a reward for yourself for successful completion of the thing.

Then just get into action and do it!  The more you analyze and rethink things, the more opportunity for fear or self-doubt.  Nothing erases fear like action!