Having confidence in what you do

Confidence is an essential part when we aim to do anything in our lives. It gives us the incentive to move forward and accomplish our goals. Many of us have confidence issues and find it difficult to accomplish what we really want and sometimes we don’t achieve what we sent out to do. Most of the time is that we fear what people would say if we stuffed up or what would they even say when we tell them we want to do this. First, not everything we want to do is right, sometimes we want to do the wrong thing and people’s thoughts are needed so that they can tell us there concerns and worries of our decisions. We have to acknowledge their thoughts and concerns as only people who care about you would worry about you. So we have to distinguish between advise and criticism to set ourselves in order to attain confidence.

1.      What are you doing

Before you can start to have confidence in what you are doing you first have to know what you are doing. There is no point in having confidence for something that is no good for you. Uncovering the fact if something is good for you or not is simple, ask you heart. When we go for something that isn’t good for us, our heart begins to talk and shake. Although we want to do it we can feel a negative feeling in our hearts and it feels like we are dragging ourselves into a huge pit. The prophet (s.a.w) said:

"I came to the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) and he (peace be upon him) said, 'You have come to ask about righteousness.' I said, 'Yes.' He (peace be upon him) said, 'Consult your heart. Righteousness is that about which the soul feels at ease and the heart feels tranquil. And wrongdoing is that which wavers in the soul and causes uneasiness in the breast, even though people have repeatedly given their legal opinion [in its favour].'"

Thus we must consult our inner hearts to find out what is good for us and not. Also create a list where you look at the negatives and positives of what you are doing, if the negatives outweigh the benefits then rule it out, there’s no point in doing something that has risks as you don’t know what the outcome will be for you. Give an analysis to your intended goal, today we constantly analyse books, articles for research and school study but we never do nor are we taught to do the same for our lives.

2.      Have faith in what you are doing

Once you know what you have set your mind to is right and you want to continue towards it, have faith and perseverance. Know why you are doing this and it will keep you going. Always think positive thoughts and the good reasons on why you set out to do this. It increases the faith you have in your goal and keeps you motivated to finish it. It may be to surprise someone or make someone proud or it may be for you and your dreams. Whatever it may be for, your positive thoughts will increase your faith and keep you steadfast and boost your confidence.

3.      Keep positive people around you

If you want to have confidence or achieve anything in life you have to have positive people around you. They keep your self-motivation high and push you when you start to weaken or slack off. Negative people tend to criticize and envy you when they see your successes and make it their prime goal to weaken your self-confidence. Most of the time it’s quite hard to identify these people because they could be under your nose or have a crafty way of speaking that you can’t exactly understand what they mean by their phrases. The aim is to analyse the people around you, their actions and words and take a minute or two to understand what they are saying. Don’t rush to conclusions in judging them wrong or believe what they say, as long as you know what you are doing is right and you are committed to it then stay upon it. The aim is to attain confidence and self-motivation so stay near those who help you reach it and lift you up when you start to weaken from you goal or can’t reach the tip of the mountain.

One more thing with confidence is needed and that is humility. Many people are confident in an arrogant way, they boast and pride themselves. If confidence does not come with humility, then that’s arrogance and selfishness. Attaining confidence and discovering how much you can do should give you the incentive to share it with others. It should not make you feel higher and boastful, if you know you can do what you set your mind to, there are people who have difficulties and your arrogance is wrong. Help others by sharing your experiences in developing confidence and overcoming challenges because we all face challenges whether big or small and tell them that they too will find a way to reach their goals. Thus having confidence and faith in what we do gives us the incentive to continue but it should be done in humility and respect for others otherwise that is not confidence.