You may have heard the saying “what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger” and according to renowned psychologist Albert Bandura, high self-efficacy can be built that way. Strange as it may sound, failing is good. It teaches us that getting to our goals takes effort and consistency. Basically, when we make it through difficult times, we prove to ourselves that we’ve got what it takes. Of course, this doesn’t mean we should aim to fail, but that we should be open to learning from it. On the other hand, succeeding helps us prove ourselves and reassure our sense of self-efficacy.
Another way to increase our self-efficacy is by finding successful peers to look up to. Watching people similar to us “making it”, boosts the belief that if they can, so can we. So it’s good to surround ourselves with others who are somehow similar to us and who work hard towards their goals. Similarly, having people close to us who believe in our skills and cheer us on can help us boost our sense of self-efficacy.
Finally, there’s managing our attitude towards stress. This means that if we think of stress as a force that pushes us forward instead of something that weakens us, we can reach high levels of self-efficacy and success.
It’s good to keep in mind that success doesn’t necessarily just mean to reach our goals. Progress is also an accomplishment in itself and it can even be measured thanks to tests specially designed for that.
Improving self-efficacy is a journey, not a destination. Yet, it can be tricky to get started. If you need some help with taking the next step, feel free to
book a free discovery call with one of our Stewards! Samaṇa can support you in #AlifeWellLived. You can find out how it works
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