Martin Meadow has written an exceptional book titled Confidence: How to Overcome Your Limiting Beliefs and Achieve Your Goals. Most people have no problems identifying goals they want to accomplish. It’s putting those plans into action that is difficult. Sometimes people lack discipline or motivation. However, there’s another reason why you might struggle to make changes in your life – you have low self-efficacy. What is self-efficacy? What are the main four sources of it? How can you develop more confidence in your abilities? These are some of the questions Martin discusses in this short book. The advice is based both on scientific research and personal experience. This fundamental knowledge will help you build more confidence in your abilities and reach your goals.
Below are a few paragraphs which will give you a brief insight into what the book is about. It is a must read and should be added to your personal development library. There is so much beneficial information in this book, it will increase your confidence in yourself so that you may live your dreams.
“The Galatea effect is a type of self-fulfilling prophecy that makes our self-expressions largely determine our performance. As a result, low self-efficacy can dramatically lower your chances of achieving personal success. If you don’t believe in your abilities, you aren’t likely to set big goals that have the highest chance of making a dramatic improvement in your life. Since you also doubt in your ability to achieve success, you won’t do your best (why invest effort in something that’s not going to work out, anyway?). On the other hand, if you possess a strong sense of self-efficacy, you constantly set the bar higher and higher and improve yourself in a daily basis.”
“Shosin is a concept of Zen Buddhists meaning ‘beginners mind’ used mostly when studying Japanese martial arts and Zen Buddhism. It refers to approaching a subject you’re studying as a beginner – even when you’re already an expert. It’s about an open mind, eagerness and a lack of assumptions. This approach will help you stay humble and, at the same time, keep your mind open to the new opportunities to grow. As Shunryu Suzuki, a Zen Buddhist renowned for founding the first Buddhist monastery outside Asia, said, ‘In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities, in the expert’s mind there are few.’ Don’t limit yourself by assuming you know everything.”
“If you ever wondered why successful people are more likely to achieve big goals, here’s your answer: success by success, they have built powerful self-efficacy that allows them to believe they can achieve even bigger things. Although your past performance is the most important factor that influences your self-efficacy, it doesn’t mean that if you’ve experienced a string of failures in the past, you’re bound to repeat them. The key to leveraging this source of self-efficacy is to ensure small wins.”
“By setting goals slightly above your ability, you will gradually improve the confidence in your abilities. Each small win will build on top of the previous one, combining into a big achievement that will do wonders to your self-efficacy. The question of how to stretch your comfort zone depends on your personality. Some people prefer small steps, venturing just a few steps outside their comfort zone. Others prefer the more extreme approach and trying things bordering the panic zone.”
“People with high self-efficacy believe that it’s their actions and decisions that affect their life. If you want to develop more confidence in your abilities, you need to change your worldview and accept the responsibility for your own life. No amount of blaming something or someone else will help you make your life better.”
You can purchase the book from here.
