How to Believe in Yourself More

The message behind so many movies, books, and traditional tales is clear: believing in yourself is incredibly important.

You can see this in The Wizard of Oz, as Dorothy discovers she had the power to get home within her all along. It's evident in the Rocky movies, where Rocky Balboa fights with sheer determination and self-belief. Even Dumbo the elephant learns that he can fly without his magic feather because the "magic" was within him all along.

So many famous stories emphasize the importance of having faith in your own strengths and believing in your potential.

But for many of us, there's a hesitant, skeptical part of our minds that thinks: I know I probably should believe in myself more, but what if I'm deluding myself? What if I'm actually not good enough?

Of course, it's true that people can sometimes be overconfident. For example, imagine investing all your life savings in a risky get-rich-quick scheme, fully trusting in your ability to spot a good opportunity, only to realize it was a scam. That's a situation where overconfidence could lead to trouble.

If this session were all about teaching you to ignore the skeptical or doubting side of yourself completely, it would be a disservice. There are times when caution and skepticism protect us from harm.

However, when someone tries to be "cautiously realistic" about themselves, they often misjudge how far to take it. Why? Because no one can be completely objective about themselves. In fact, your attitude toward yourself actually influences who you are and how well you perform.

Psychologist Richard Wiseman discovered that people who believe they're generally lucky are statistically more likely to notice a banknote lying on the sidewalk during an experiment. Their belief in their own luckiness-an expectation that good things often happen to them-became a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Another example of the power of expectations comes from a 1968 study by Harvard psychologist Robert Rosenthal. He worked with an elementary school principal to carry out an experiment.

First, all the students were given an IQ test. Then, the teachers were told which students had scored in the top 20%-the ones supposedly most likely to excel during the year. These students were labeled as "spurters."

However, the researchers had randomly selected the students, and their IQ scores had nothing to do with it. The experiment wasn't about IQ-it was about how teacher expectations could influence student success.

At the end of the year, the randomly selected "spurters" achieved significantly higher scores than their peers on independently marked tests. The teachers' expectations had objectively changed the students' abilities.

The same principle applies to your expectations about yourself. If you're overly cautious and skeptical about your ability to succeed, those negative expectations can become self-fulfilling prophecies.

But when you have faith in yourself, you tip the odds in your favor. Self-belief makes you more likely to succeed.

This session is designed to help you be more encouraging and supportive toward yourself. You'll learn to give yourself a fair chance in life and stay resilient, even when faced with challenges or criticism.

When you truly start to believe in yourself and your potential to grow and develop, that positive attitude will bring out the very best in you. You'll tap into all your strengths and resources, empowering yourself to achieve your goals and thrive as the best version of you.