Is There Such A Thing As A Born Loser?
Those cheesy signs that say “Believe” are right.
It doesn’t matter if we are to-do list makers, or Law Of Attraction partakers. A 20-year study in self-efficacy shows us that the foundation of success that trumps all others, starts even before you make an action plan.
What is Self-Efficacy?
Self-efficacy is a term coined by Albert Bandura, who wrote a book a book about it. A couple of other words used to describe a similar idea are self-confidence, self-esteem, and self-concept.
Quickly, let’s look at the differences.
Self-confidence is our general belief in our ability to perform various tasks successfully.
Self-esteem is our overall sense of self-worth and value.
Lastly, self-concept is our perception of ourselves, including our abilities, personality traits, values, behaviors, and experiences.
While these terms are related to self-efficacy, they are not identical. Self-efficacy specifically refers to an individual’s belief in their ability to perform a specific task. The other terms are more inclusive but get used interchangeably.
So What Did The 20 Years Of Study Discover?
Albert found that our success or failure lies heavily on our beliefs about our capabilities because these beliefs impact our behavior.
There are two major life improvement takeaways from this study:
First, our confidence level plays a critical role in determining the goals we set for ourselves, how much effort we put into achieving those goals, and how long we persist in the face of obstacles.
Second, we develop our confidence levels through a complex interplay of personal, environmental, and behavioral factors that we can influence.
The fact that we can influence and thus improve our success rate in life through increasing confidence is a game changer.
Let’s dig a little deeper.
First, when we believe we can accomplish a task, we are more likely to set challenging goals, exert more effort, and persevere longer in the face of difficulties than those who doubt their abilities.
For example, if we feel confident in math, we’re more likely to set a goal of earning an A in the class, work hard to understand the material, and persist in studying when faced with difficult problems.
On the other hand, when lacking confidence in our math abilities, we may set a more modest goal, put in less effort, and give up more easily when faced with challenging problems.
Second, personal factors refer to our characteristics, such as our personality traits, mental capability, and emotional states. For example, if we’re optimistic and resilient, we develop higher confidence levels than someone who is pessimistic and easily discouraged.
Environmental factors also play a role. These include our social and cultural context, such as the support and feedback we receive from others. If we receive praise and encouragement from our teachers and peers, we’re more likely to develop higher confidence in academic tasks.
Behavioral factors are our past experiences of success or failure in similar tasks. If we have succeeded in a particular task before, we’ll likely display high confidence toward similar tasks in the future.
All these factors interact in a dynamic way to shape our self-efficacy beliefs. For instance, low self-efficacy may benefit from receiving positive feedback from others or having a successful experience in a related task, which can boost confidence and lead to higher self-efficacy beliefs.
Why Self-Belief Works
Now we can see that self-belief, positive thinking, self-confidence, and all the related terms are more than just hyped new-age mental hugs.
If we develop these thought systems, we’re more likely to engage in active learning, persist in the face of challenges, and achieve better outcomes.
Increasing confidence allows us to adopt and maintain proper success-oriented behaviors. We set challenging goals, put in the necessary effort to achieve those goals and maintain focus and motivation in the face of setbacks.
That right there is a success stack. So how do we get into this mental mindset if we have a history of failure?
How do we change the fate in our stars?
The Dead Simple 4-Step Fix For Chronic Failure
First, we get a win under our belt with a mastery experience. The win should relate to the big goal, and there should be a 98% chance of succeeding.
Engaging in activities that lead to success and positive outcomes increases our belief in our ability to perform similar tasks successfully in the future.
And then that belief causes us to take further success-orientated actions as we read above.
Second, see how the professionals are winning through vicarious experiences. Observing others similar to us, achieving the things we want, increases our belief that we can do the same.
Because anything done by one person can be done by another — barring extreme physical differences like height.
Third, we seek some verbal persuasion. Encouragement and positive feedback from others helps boost our belief in our ability to perform a task successfully.
Hearing a couple of kind words when we are doubting ourselves can be the nudge we need to get past a hump.
Fourth and lastly, encourage certain emotional and physiological states. Positive emotional states are feeling calm and relaxed. Positive physiological states are a lower heart rate and breathing rate. These help to increase self-efficacy beliefs.
Getting too jacked up on caffeine and feeling anxious keeps us from thinking big picture. An amped or nervous mindset is better for mindless physical output. A calm and rational mind is better for critical thinking, planning, and problem-solving.
Easy Steps With A Big Upside
And that’s it. If we have low self-efficacy, we can increase our belief in our ability to perform a task by:
- Engaging in activities that lead to success
- Observing others who are successful
- Receiving encouragement and positive feedback from others
- And managing our emotional and physiological states
By practicing and experiencing success in a task, we gradually build our self-efficacy beliefs and become more confident in our abilities.
And that, my friends, is how I fixed my chronic history of failure.
Noone is born a loser. We just have the ability to trend our life that direction through our thoughts and actions.
Thank you for reading. When my next book is finished, I will email my newsletter subscribers here: https://raymondburton.com/7-c/