Confidence makes people who they are. Without it, one cannot find the fulfillment they aspire to have. Instilling self-confidence is easier said than done; people struggle to overcome shyness and low self-esteem, resulting in botched plans and unattained goals. Think of it this way, your lack of self-confidence stifles you from reaching your ultimate aspirations in life.
The lack of confidence over your own capacity does severe damages in how people perceive you. If you cannot show them that you are confident about yourself, how will they bring themselves to trust you? It should always start with you.
Why is self-confidence important?
Self-confidence refers to the faith you have in yourself, whether you are comfortable with your abilities or not. When you are confident, you are more assertive in doing the things you want. You don’t easily let your guard down because you believe in your capabilities to withstand challenges and accomplish things.
Many people seek to get an inch of confidence every confident person has. Why not? Being confident is one of the most admirable traits one can have, especially in your career. It gives you an advantage over people who hold back and get stuck with their self-limitations.
However, it’s not entirely their fault that they have low confidence. There are several reasons as to why they lack trust in themselves, like:
- Traumatic experiences
- Parenting style
- Discrimination
- Genes
- Introversion
- Cultural background
- History of being bullied
Effects of lack of self-confidence to your life
If you cannot control your lack of self-confidence, your priorities in life are bound to suffer. Want to know how? Below is the list of negative effects it can give you.
1. Demotivation
The lack of confidence causes you to belittle your capacity. This, in turn, will result in a lack of motivation to trudge along on the challenging aspects of life. If you initially think poorly of yourself, the unwillingness to take action comes next. You won’t be motivated knowing that your head is clouded with negative impressions of yourself.
2. Missed opportunities
People with low confidence are afraid to take risks. They are scared of failing, and would rather stand on the sidelines than watch themselves succumb to failure. They don’t trust themselves to succeed, which dramatically affects the opportunities arising.
When promising opportunities come knocking on their doors, they tend to overthink and believe that they have nothing to offer. This causes the loss of potential opportunities that could have brought fruitful results.
3. Difficulty in decision-making
Sometimes the only thing you need is that extra nudge to pursue things you really want. When you are full of hesitations, you might miss the right opportunity to grow.
People who aren’t confident enough tend to overthink things and have a hard time deciding. Although it’s good to reflect before going for it, indecisiveness can block your chance of success if you dwell on your doubts.
4. Thirst for perfection
While it’s good to ensure things are spotless, being perfect isn’t what you should strive for. Perfection exhausts you into thinking all things should go according to plan, and there should be no room for mistakes. This habit overworks you while blaming yourself for the littlest of things. This happens because you want to satisfy the standards of people that intimidate you.
5. Dependency on others’ validation
Being shy, non-confident people seek validation from others. This creates the penchant to please other people because they find it empowering to hear others rooting for them. While it’s normal to have people cheering you on, it must start with yourself. Relying on others’ validation makes you work for others and not yourself.
6. Sensitivity to criticism
The problem with being overly sensitive to criticism is the tendency to take things personally. When you lack confidence, it’s easy to feel hurt over bad feedback when they aim to make you better. Feeling threatened and shameful over criticisms just make you seem weak and immature. Owning up to mistakes and finding ways to improve should be the initial response, don’t beat yourself up into thinking you didn’t do enough.
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7. Awkwardness over compliments
Shy people do not know how to receive compliments. With the constant self-beating, hearing wonderful compliments may seem surprising to them. Instead of graciously accepting them, they play it lowkey and avoid recognizing hard work. What’s worse is they might even hesitate about the genuineness of these affirmations.
8. Compromised career
Confidence is one of the most hirable traits. If you lack assertion at work, don’t expect to get a fulfilling job at all. You need to take risks if you really want to excel in your career. Any employer would prefer a self-assertive and confident employee over someone who isn’t sure about themselves.
Some adverse outcomes of lacking self-confidence in the workplace include low income, ineligibility for promotions, and inability to form strong work relationships.
9. Failed relationships
Confidence also plays a crucial role in the social relationships you have. Whether with friends, a significant other, family, or even workmates, lack of confidence will do you no good if you keep holding back from speaking up or doing things people ask you to do. Maintaining a healthy relationship is a struggle when one party is unwilling to trust themselves.
10. Lack of self-worth
A typical result of low confidence is failing to recognize your own worth. When you forget to prioritize your personal needs, you are sabotaging your overall health. It can impact the way you eat, behave, sleep, function, and think.
11. Poor posture
One of the non-verbal signs of being not confident is slouching. Constant slouching results in lousy posture, which doesn’t only look bad, but also damage your spine. To top it off, slouching reflects your lack of confidence, making it easy to conclude you really are not confident in others’ perspectives.
If you are not alarmed yet with what lack of confidence can do to your life, you need to reevaluate your behavior and priorities. Your lack of trust in yourself drastically impacts the things you treasure in life. You just need to come out of your shell to materialize your deepest aspirations.
Need a guide in breaking out from your own barriers? Here’s an online personal development course to teach you exactly how: Learn Confidence and Goal Setting from A World Record Holder. Get a pocketful of tips to living your best sans the self-doubt through this online mastery class.
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