How to regain control over your thoughts to bring back self-belief

What is self-belief?

Self-belief is all about your ability to trust in your capabilities. If you’re faced with an obstacle or opportunity, how do you react? If you fear rising to the challenge because you worry about failure and judgement, you may be experiencing lower levels of self-belief.

Albert Bandura’s theory of self-efficacy shows how our beliefs in our capabilities can have a direct impact on how well we function and how we respond to the events that affect our lives. Positive self-belief can lead to you feeling more motivated and improve your wellbeing. Rather than feeling undeserving, you’ll be able to relish in your personal achievements and feel accomplished.

What’s holding you back?

According to the NHS, low self-esteem commonly starts in childhood, with the message of being ‘not good enough’ often having a greater impact than positive ones. Stress, illnesses and bereavement can also have a significant impact.

Dwindling self-belief can cause us to avoid:

Trying new things

Putting ourselves forward for new roles or promotions

Confronting challenging or difficult situations

Learning to regain control

Spiraling negative thoughts can lead to depression and make it harder to focus. It can also leave you more susceptible to using unhealthy habits as coping mechanisms, reinforcing your inner doubts and fears.

Here are three ways you can boost your self-belief:

Remind yourself of positive affirmations, whether it’s writing them down in your journal (link to blog) or saying them to yourself outloud. You could choose one each week from this list to focus on.

Push yourself to confront what you fear, for example sending in a proposal even if you feel you might be rejected because you’re not good enough. Putting yourself out there will make you realise that even if you get rejected, it’s not the end of the world. You can learn from the experience and you’ll get valuable feedback.

Use a mindful meditation (link to blog) to help calm your anxiety and stay in the present moment. . This can help you to distance yourself from negative thinking patterns and instead focus on the reality of the situation.

Rewiring your brain to stop these negative thought patterns isn’t always easy, but it’s possible. Taking steps to increase your confidence, build up your self-belief and regain control has many benefits for your work and personal life. You’ll be braver in seeking new career opportunities, develop deeper connections with your colleagues and hush your inner critic.

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