Believe in Yourself. You Have Probably Heard This Many Times. But What Does It Mean?
By Steve Ryan, MA, Professor of General Education
Believing in yourself means having confidence that you can do it! Whether it is a public speaking class or a core nursing class here at AUHS, walk into that classroom and tell yourself: I can do this, and I can succeed.
Also, believing in yourself means not being afraid. Do not be afraid.
Let me ask you this: How do you talk about yourself when someone says, “Tell me about yourself.” Do you say, “I am not good at this, and I am not good at this.” Or do you say, I am very good at this, and I am excited to learn more to improve myself.
How you talk about yourself helps to build – or deflate – your confidence and can affect how you believe in yourself or not.
So, when you take that chemistry class, are you saying, “I am going to do horribly in this class.” Or I am going to do really well, and I am going to learn a lot.
Personally speaking, believing in myself has been an important part of my life. It helped me to become a journalist after college at the New York Post newspaper; believing in myself helped me to approach editors about articles, and they then liked my confidence and said, “Yes, Steve, all yours, go for it.” Believing in myself helped me to move to California, to buy a house for the first time without any knowledge of how to buy a house, to adopt my son when I knew nothing about adoption, and believing in myself helped me to start teaching in 2003 at the university level for the first time. And here I am today…22 years later still teaching at the university level.
I would like to share this article with you from Psychology Today. In this article, they describe how self-efficacy is a key ingredient of self-regulation.
The Power of Believing in Yourself | Psychology Today
Hebrews 1:1 states, “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.”
It’s not what you see today. Have faith in what you do not see yet.
Believe in yourself!