Believing any one of these myths can negatively affect your self-confidence, which can cascade to any and all parts of your life. For you to live your best life, I have written this article to share 6 myths about confidence that you MUST stop believing. If you want to increase your self-confidence, then it’s important to eliminate these misconceptions and focus on reality.
Keep reading to learn more about 6 myths about confidence you must stop believing:
Table of Contents
Confidence Myth 1: You have to earn confidence by being successful.
Although success can give your confidence a boost, it’s not a requirement to have it.
You can have confidence without great success.
It’s important to take note of small wins. Even showering, taking a five-minute walk or making a small change to what you normally do have a lot a value.
In fact, experts share that in order for you to reach the highest levels of success, you need to have confidence first. You can start small and watch it grow over time as you reach new goals.
Confidence Myth 2: Only extroverts can be confident.
High confidence is not exclusive to the most extroverted, no matter what you’ve been told. In our society, it’s common to see extroverts receive all of the praise, but introverts definitely have our own strengths.
Contrary to what you may believe, there are extroverts who aren’t confident. Introversion and extraversion have more to do with how a person gains or loses energy and how others are involved. Confident introverts are out there, and their identities would probably surprise you. Confidence is internal and depends on your thoughts and self-talk.
Confidence Myth 3: You have to be confident all the time.
The truth is that confidence levels can go up and down. It’s normal for your confidence to fluxuate, depending on the situation, and this is normal. No one is confident at all times. According to experts, this is normal and not something to be concerned about.
Because you’re human, you will feel fear and lack of confidence from time to time. The key is to work through them and keep going. Feelings of uncertainty and insecurity will happen.
Confidence Myth 4: You have to love being the center of attention.
Beingg in the middle of everything doesn’t necessarily lead to high confidence. Being the center of attention consumes a lot of energy, which is a resource some of us must reserve.
Those you see as confident aren’t always front and center and it’s ok to step away and recharge before stepping forward again.
Performers, speakers, artists, and anyone you’ve admired have moments when they want to avoid being the center of attention, and will avoid large gatherings and crowds when they need to do so.
Confidence Myth 5: You must be born with confidence.
Even though it seems that people were born with high confidence, you didn’t need to be. Confidence isn’t built into your DNA like eye color or hair color.
On the contrary; it’s likely that they have learned to be more confident over time by being afraid and doing the thing anyway. For example, you’re not born with a natural ability to write or read. You learn to write and read with time and lots of practice, just like you can practice until you’ve increased your confidence.
Confidence Myth 6: Comparing yourself to others will increase your confidence.
Let’s get this out of the way: Comparison is an act of violence – unless you’re comparing who you were with who you are to gauge your own progress. Comparing yourself to those you think are better (or worse) than you isn’t the way to make yourself more confident. By neglecting yourself to focus on yourself by focusing on how others are doing, you will ensure that your own challenges and issues will persist. You won’t do anything but feed the insecurities that have placed you where you are. Don’t compare your behind-the-scenes with someone else’s highlight reels, because there are things you will never know about their actual lives.
To sum it all up, these myths can inhibit your progress and hurt your self-esteem, which is what you don’t want. The great news is, you don’t have to believe these myths anymore. Toss them in the trash, Queen, where they belong and start incresing your confidence right now!