How to believe in yourself through your toughest times

Try these techniques to help you remain steadfast when you are feeling the pressure of tough times:

1. Reflect on the past. You may have encountered seemingly insurmountable situations in the past. How have you succeeded in the most unpleasant scenarios? Clearly, your ability to overcome these situations speaks loudly for your strength and abilities.
   • In some situations, you may be able to emulate your past solutions by adapting them to fit your current situation. Other times, you will be able to learn what not to do from past trials and tribulations.
   • The past need not dictate your future. It is possible to reflect without working up old, unresolved feelings. This is a positive exercise. If you begin to feel negative emotions, move onto another technique, which can help you increase self-confidence in your abilities.
2. Act immediately. Rather than retreating into your personal cocoon when a situation becomes intimidating, address it immediately. The longer you allow a situation to sit without attention, the more urgent it will become. A perfect example is debt.
   • Avoid cornering yourself with urgency by creating a proactive plan now. Or, better yet, have a just-in-case plan before the event ever happens. It is okay to take a few hours to create a plan of attack, if you are still brainstorming weeks from today, you may be stalling.
   • Only you can be the source of a solution. You are in charge of managing your life and ensuring its success. Take pride in this power. After all, you are free – no one commands you! Your life is what you make it. You can use your power to start on the right foot every day.
3. Believe it. You will make it through. You have found your way out of a tough situation before. You will do it now and again and sometime in the future. There is always a way to get your head above the water – always. You will get better at it once you gain experience.
   • You have a fan base of supporters. Your children, partner, and extended family are cheering you on every day. Chances are that no one doubts your abilities the way you do. In fact, they have faith in your abilities because you have proven your strength time and time again.
   • As Bernice Johnson Reagon said, “Life’s challenges are not supposed to paralyze you; they’re supposed to help you discover who you are.”
   • Now is as good of a time as any to show yourself what you are made of. Confirm to yourself that you are as strong and tenacious as you suspect yourself to be.

Everyone encounters hard times – it is simply a part of life. And a very major part of how you will address these hard times is dependent on your mindset and your ability to believe in yourself, even throughout the toughest of times.

Your mindset can be your best friend or your worst enemy. If you allow your mindset to shift into negative territory, you will end up with negative results. Remember, you attract the energy you exude!

Below is an exercise I use with my personal growth coaching clients. Using a blank piece of paper think about the biggest challenges you have faced in your life and answer the following three questions:

1. How did your mindset affect the outcome?
2. How would the outcome have changed had your mindset been different?
3. What can you do proactively to ensure the same challenge is easier to face next time?

Do you need help to start believing in yourself even when you are facing tough times? Act now and send an email to gary@garymorgan.coach