​Sometimes the difference in whether you succeed or whether you don’t comes down to one simple thing – believing in yourself. Have you ever thought about how much believing in yourself makes a difference in your quality of life? Think about it for a minute. If you don’t really believe that you can do something, you are not going to give your full effort and, without your full effort, your chances of successfully achieving your goal are greatly reduced.

Also, if your goal requires help from others, you then need them to believe in you. If you don’t believe in yourself; why would they believe in you. Every successful goal that you ever achieve will have one common thing that they require i.e. that you believe in yourself.

A strong belief in yourself can bring you all these benefits and more:

​Wouldn’t you love to enjoy these qualities of confidence and well-being on a daily basis? The good news is you can! There are actions you can take to fortify your belief in yourself.

​Whether you feel lacking in this area or just want to strengthen your belief for the extra benefits, try these ideas to further develop your self-belief:

Be your own best cheerleader and encourage yourself to get your tasks done. Learn to break down your challenges into small steps until you know that you can do it.

I learned this tactic when my business was struggling. I knew what I wanted to achieve in the long run but I lacked confidence in my ability to make it happen. So, instead of being overwhelmed by the big picture, I got into the habit of setting 90 day plans to bring myself closer to achieving the big goal.

I would then break the 90 day plan down into monthly targets and finally, daily actions. I could then focus on the daily actions which I had enough confidence to pursue.

Believing in yourself can be difficult when you are facing a big and daunting goal but when you break it down into bitesize actions, it becomes so much easier.

The support of others will definitely benefit you, but it is you who must make the changes necessary for you to start believing in yourself.

Whether it’s getting the career you want, obtaining more training, meeting someone you admire, traveling to a faraway place, or setting a goal to save a million dollars; connect with your dreams.

We often get put off from pursuing our dreams because we don’t believe in our ability to make them happen. What we forget is that it takes time to achieve a big goal/dream. In the time it takes to achieve that goal/dream, you also have the time to acquire the knowledge, skills and attitudes required to achieve it.

Don’t base your beliefs in tomorrow’s success on the abilities you possess today. Believe in your ability to learn and grow.

When you create a vision or dream for the life you want, you give yourself something to aim for. You have criteria which you can use to make your decisions and; you start to realise that you do not have to be great at everything. All you really need ​to do is ​develop a few key skills and some specific knowledge.

Just knowing that you don’t need to be great at everything can take away a great deal of self-doubt.

Believing in yourself means you’re motivated to get things done. Get into the habit of setting goals (both short-term and long-term). Then, you can take active steps to achieve them. With every goal that you achieve, no matter how small, your confidence will increase.

Believing in yourself is not some miracle of fate; it comes from creating a track record of achievement. That track record starts with setting goals.

It is not just the completion and achievement of the goal which increases your self-belief. As you complete each task along the way to the achievement of the goals, you give yourself a little boost.

It is easy to think that self-belief is something that you either have or ​you don’t or; that it comes in one moment. But that couldn’t be further from the truth. Self-belief is built step by step, action by action. Lacking self-belief is not a sign of failure, it is just a sign that you need to start building ​that belief..

​If you don’t have any goals or dreams, check out the Ultimate Guide to Goal Setting.

Treating yourself with a nurturing nature and the understanding that you’re a deserving human being is an important aspect of developing belief in yourself.

As you begin to see yourself as worthy of being treated with respect, others begin to get that message too. For those who don’t get that message, you will come to the realisation that they should have no place in your life.

We all know how it is important to treat others with respect and dignity. When they screw up, we usually go easy on them because we know that we make mistakes too. We understand that mistakes are a natural part of life.

Unfortunately, when we make the mistake ourselves; all that goes out the window. Rather than treat ourselves with respect and dignity, accepting that it was an honest mistake; we berate and admonish ourselves.

When we behave like this, we send a message to ourselves that we are not of value and, we can’t be trusted. We send the same message to anyone who witnesses our over the top behaviour.

Treat yourself with respect and care and then demand the same from others.

Remember the childhood story about the little engine that could? When you want to accomplish your tasks with excellence and achieve your goals, it’s an incredible testament to your level of motivation. Build momentum to fuel your motivation.

To ensure your motivation for your biggest goals, take the time to understand why you want to achieve them. You should also regularly take the time to visualise your life as it will be once you have achieved the goal i.e. you will be living the benefits.

The old saying that where there is a will there is a way is very true. When you reinforce your motivation like this, you will create an iron-clad will to achieve your goal and you will find a way to make it happen. Believing in yourself is that powerful.

No one is immune from experiencing rocky chapters in his life. But if you believe in yourself, you can meet those challenging phases with a positive, solid fortitude. You’ll push forward, move through the trying moments and know you’ll come out on the other side smarter, stronger and surer of yourself.

During the tough times, remind yourself of how you have gotten through tough times before. Think about how you had the resilience and toughness to get through it. Summon that resilience and you will soon start to fight back.

Then, as with the first step in this article, focus on what you can do on a daily basis to come out on the other side of the difficulties. You will gain even more confidence as you take each step but you must start with some self-belief.

Life is a journey and like any other journey, you are going to take some wrong turns. You are going to need to correct your course from time to time. So, don’t let setbacks get to you. Just identify the changes you need to make, make them and move on.

Regardless of what stage of life you’re living, search for the good all around you. Get the most you can from each moment. Live in the moment and be determined to focus on and, be grateful for, all of the good things that are in your life.

When you are feeling down it is very tempting to think that your life is 100% bad but that is rarely the case. Learn to compartmentalise i.e. if one area of your life is not working, don’t automatically assume that every area of your life is bad; keep your sense of disappointment solely for the area where you are underperforming.

Then focus on each area of your life and spend a little time being appreciative for all the good things e.g. if you are struggling at work you may remind yourself of your successes such as:

You could literally be grateful for anything positive in your life. The important thing is that you take the time to recognise the positives and appreciate them.

Also, don’t wait for something to go wrong before you find something in your life to be grateful for. Take a little time each day to practice gratitude and whenever you achieve any success in your life, no matter how small, celebrate it.

​Believing in yourself is one of the most powerful choices you can make and, it is a choice. In the face of adversity, any of the seven steps, outlined above, can prove to be difficult but they are choices which you can make. If you dedicate yourself to fostering self-belief and set aside a little time each day for working on it; you will soon find that you have greater resilience when the tough times come. You will stand strong, safe in the knowledge that no matter what life throws at you, you will be able to work through it. Practice these strategies and you’ll discover the sheer joy and comfort of knowing you can do whatever it is you choose when you believe in yourself.