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The First Step to Success: Positive Self-Efficacy

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I can because I believe I can! How well you do on a particular task has a lot to do with how well you believe you will do before you even get started and every human has a working belief concerning his or her own ability level.
The belief in one's potential, known as personal self-efficacy, is present in the personality make-up of all human beings.
When someone is said to have high self-efficacy it is meant that he or she is confident in his or her own ability.
On the contrary, when a person is said to have low self-efficacy it is meant that he or she is not confident in their own ability and feels that achieving whatever goal they wish to achieve is beyond their ability to master.
How Self-efficacy is developed? Self-efficacy is developed early in life alongside self-esteem, self-worth, self-image, and self-confidence.
As human beings, we are born with certain character traits such as a tendency to be shy, outgoing, contemplative etcetera.
As we grow and develop, our environments play a role in how we express these character traits adding depth to our personality.
The environment also influences how we see the world, how we see ourselves and the perceptions we have about ourselves in the world because so much of who we are in terms of internal beliefs and outward expressions are garnered from having witnessed the interactions of those around us.
So if a child's inner circle is comprised of persons who work hard to achieve various goals such as completing college or losing weight to control diabetes for example then the child learns vicariously through those people that despite the odds there success is possible for not only those adults but for himself as well.
A child who has identifiable successes throughout the developmental process is likely to grow up believing that since success and goal attainment has been possible in the past then it is likely that such successes can continue into the future.
How to improve self-efficacy? To improve self-efficacy it is important to conduct a sort of internal assessment and clearly identify where you are and where you want to go.
This is actually a great start for most personal growth work.
Having a clear idea of the successes and failures that you have had in your life as well as the setbacks will allow you to examine what's working and what needs adjusting.
Particular to achieving desired results and improving your personal self-efficacy, mastery over experiences and social persuasions are critical.
Success Equals More Success Mastery Over Experiences is the most direct way of creating high self efficacy and to put it plainly, success raises self-efficacy.
The more successes you have the more likely you will be to attempt new things and expect similar positive results.
Now this is easy if you start a place of having had many positive experiences.
If however yours is a story of more trials than tribulations remember it is never too late to start anew.
To do so requires you to take some small risks.
You want to start with something simple like taking a new class for example.
Perhaps you've wanted to learn ballroom dancing but have been told all of your life that you have two left feet.
A small step such as signing up for a four-week class is a simple step that will put you closer to your goal.
At the end of the four weeks you may not be a disco fever strike like magic dancer but you would have accomplished one small goal-completing the four week dance session.
At the end of the course don't forget to celebrate your accomplishment and add it to your growing list of things done and things mastered.
Birds of a Feather Flock Together Social persuasion refers to the encouragement or discouragement that we receive from the people within our network.
Encouragement towards positive behaviors from persons who are in your same position or in a position that you would like to see yourself have a great influence over one's ability to not only take action but to take action believing that they can succeed.
Two variables are in play here and that is the quality of persons within your network and two whether or not such persons are encouraging or discouraging.
To reach your mark it is imperative that you surround yourself with persons who are best able to model the behaviors and results that you want to see in yourself.
A simple example of this is the person in the action stage of recovery that is wise enough to know that if he is to remain sober he needs to dissociate himself from the people and places that could trigger a relapse.
While this particular example is substance abuse related, any example can illustrate the point of having positive associations and the disposition of these associations.
Two other examples are the mid level manager seeking to move into executive level status or the independent fitness trainer who has entrepreneurial ambitions.
Both scenarios require you to seek out persons who are in the area where you want to be as a mentor because through this mentorship you began to model the required behaviors for the type of life that you want to live.
Never underestimate the power in social persuasions as such have a positive correlation with self-efficacy and these experiences have the ability to either support your goals or weaken your attempts to achieve your goals.
To Rate Your Self-efficacy Take Quiz
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