How To Find Confidence To Do What You Love

Everyone has a hidden passion or a secret dream, but most people never get the chance to live it. Too many people shrug off their desires, claiming they do not have the time, money, or luck to make them happen. However, while these things help, they are not what turns our goals into reality. The most fundamental thing anyone needs to follow their passion is confidence. Here are a few ways to tap into the confidence you need to do what you love.

Listen to your voice

Before you can live the life you love, you have to trust yourself. Belief in your ideas is the key to finding the confidence you need to succeed. Take some time to sort out your wants from the voices of the people around you. Find the boundary between the life you want to lead and what other people think is best. While it is usually fairly easy to decipher what goals are your own, and which you feel obligated to because of pressure from others, someone else's influence can affect your thoughts in other ways too.

More often than not, the insecurities that get in the way of choosing to do what you love come from people who have said or done something in the past to make us doubt ourselves. Do not forget to mentally give back those insecurities to the people who own them. You do not need anyone else to tell you what you can and cannot do or who you are supposed to be. The more you can follow your voice and shut out the opinions of others, the more you can build confidence in yourself.

Find your motivation

You have to know why you are fighting for something to find the confidence you need to achieve it. At one time, every successful person started their journey with only a reason to try. When finding what will motivate you, rely on your inner voice. Do you want to do what you love to have a better life? To live more freely? To impress yourself?

Your motivation should reflect a deeper reason for why you want to succeed. It should speak to your needs only (unless of course, you are trying to do something to improve the life of you and someone you love). For example, you would not want your motivation for reaching your dreams to echo a thought like, "I want to prove my boss wrong." This makes the journey about them, not you. When you connect with the core reason for wanting to live the life you love, it gives you something to hold on to until you achieve your goal. This helps you become a more confident woman or man who you can get what she or he wants.

Make a plan

Part of being confident in getting the life you want is knowing you can accomplish the goal you have insight. To do this, you have to make sure you have everything you need for your vision to become a reality. Spend some time thinking about what your journey will require. Do you need to go back to school? Take classes? Change your living situation? Avoid shutting down and abandoning what you want simply because it will take time or effort to get there.

If you are not exactly sure what you need to live the life you want, look to people who are currently living that life, or those who have done so in the past. For example, if your goal is to quit your corporate job, and go into self-employment, research what other successful entrepreneurs did to get their idea up and running. If you want to make it big in the entertainment industry, use your favorite celebrities as mentors to guide you on your path. You will boost your confidence by knowing you are taking the right steps to live a life you love.

Stand out

Chances are you are not the only one who has your dream. If your dream is one of those where there is a one-in-a-million chance you will succeed, you will have to find something that makes you stand out from the crowd. Think about what makes you unique. What do you do better or different from anyone else? Maybe you have a creative look or sound. Maybe you have innovative ideas, a new perspective, or a special skill.

If you are having trouble finding what makes you notable, think back to compliments you have received from friends, family, or co-workers. Anything they have admired about you is something you can use to find your niche.Think about what comes to you naturally, and never try to stand out in a way that does not feel like you. Your confidence will drastically rise when you begin to appreciate what makes you special, and using that thing in your favor can make the life you want that much closer.

Find good people

It might seem like a shortcut to confidence, but surrounding yourself with people who believe you can succeed is an easy way to feel like you can accomplish anything. It is helpful to find this support in a community that is relevant to your dreams. But if the only person on your team is your mother, brother, or best friend that works too.

The flip side to surrounding yourself with supportive people is that you can cut out others who make you feel doubt. Stay away from those who always have something bad to say, drain your energy, or make you feel foolish for following your dreams. Also, avoid people who make you feel like what you want is not worth working for. The more people you have rooting for you, the more likely it is your confidence will survive any low points in your journey.

Be kind to you

The way you talk to yourself matters. The way you speak to yourself about getting the life you want matters even more. Although it might come off as corny, giving yourself positive mantras does a lot to change your inner voice over time. If looking in the mirror and repeating motivational phrases is not your thing, get creative with shaping your inner voice.

Lots of quotes and art are uplifting. There are countless books on positivity too.  The more you channel positive thinking, the more likely you are to tap into confidence that lasts.

Dive in

The closer you feel like you are to your dream the more confident you will become that you can reach it. For example, if traveling the world is how you want to live your life, create little reminders of that goal you can see all day long. Collages, scrapbooks, and even miscellaneous trinkets are great ways to sort your ideas visually. Keeping them in sight often will serve as a constant reminder of what you are working to achieve.

Do not be afraid to fake it until you make it either. If your goal is to become a comedian, spend your free time in comedy clubs. Go out of your way to make others laugh. If you want to be an artist, enter some local art contests, or showcase your work for family and friends. You do not have to wait until you reach your end-goal to find success in your journey. The more you identify with the life you want to live, the more you will begin to believe it is not that far away.

Kick bad habits

If you have not been able to live the life you want in the past, it may be due to the bad habits you are carrying with you. Bad habits are not just things we do, like eating too much sugar; they can be thoughts, behavior patterns, and beliefs too. Think about what your bad habits might be, and reflect on how they may have caused you to fail in the past.

Think about a specific time when you failed at something and try to remember what you were telling yourself or how you were acting or feeling back then. See if the same ideas or actions come up over a few different instances of "failure." If you can learn what your bad habits are, get rid of them! Your confidence will skyrocket because you will know how to avoid self-inflicted setbacks during your journey.

Takeaway

Most people associate therapy with mental illness or difficult times in life. But the reality is that therapy is useful at any time for anyone. Finding the confidence to reach your goals will likely require some change, either in your day-to-day life or in how you think.  Licensed counselors are experts at helping you find confidence in times of change, and they are incredibly helpful when facing any challenges that come with chasing the life you want.

Reaching your goals largely comes down to how you think. If you have confidence, you immediately have a better chance of living the life you want than the person who is only relying on luck, time, or money to get there. Confidence is something that builds over time; it does not turn off and on like a light switch. If you have patience with the process of increasing your confidence you can accomplish more than you ever dreamed possible. For more articles about stimulating partner confidence-building activities, feel free to explore more in Regain.us