“You have to believe in yourself. That’s the secret to success.” Charles Chaplin.

If you believe in yourself you will feel confident in your ability to solve problems and overcome obstacles that will come up in your journey toward reaching your goals and living a happy life.

Think about all the stories and movies where the protagonist is the underdog who despite all odds, ends up getting what he wants. These are very satisfying stories because they make us think that we too can achieve and do anything despite our current circumstances.

Moreover, every successful person had to believe in him or herself to find the courage, persistence, and determination to overcome obstacles and solve problems.

Am I Good Enough?

When we set out to achieve a new goal and we need to do things we have never done before, we hear a little voice in our head telling us “You are not good enough.”

Recently, I read Michelle Obama’s book: Becoming. What struck me the most was her determination to overcome the little voice in her head telling her “You are not good enough.”

Michelle tried to silence this voice by getting good grades and being an excellent student. Throughout her memoir, she shares how her little victories such as:

• getting good grades

• playing the piano

• confronting a bully

• speaking up for herself

encouraged her to believe in herself and take on more challenging goals.

Even though the intrusive “You are not good enough” voice tried to discourage her, she had already many victories under her belt, which had taught her to trust and believe in herself.

Here are 10 strategies to silence the voice that keeps telling you that you are not good enough so that you can believe in yourself and create a happy life.

1 – Small Victories

If you feel intimidated by a big goal, divide it into smaller more achievable goals that you find easier to achieve.

It may be intimidating to:

• Lose 100 pounds

• Pay $20,000 in debt

• Save $5,000 for an emergency fund

• Run a marathon

The worst that can happen is to feel paralyzed by the thought that I am not good enough or that the goal is too big for me.

If we keep thinking that we are not good enough and do not take any action, we are confirming that we are not good enough because we are not moving forward.

Keep the big, scary, and intimidating goal in the back of your mind. Think of a little step forward that you could take right now.

Ask yourself, what is a reasonable action that will move me forward that I can take today or this week?

Maybe you could:

• Lose one pound per week

• Pay $100.00 off your credit card debt

• Save 1% of your income for an emergency fund

• Run or walk for 10 minutes

A small goal that you could achieve with just a little effort. Once you achieved that little goal, you are one step closer to believing in yourself and able to achieve your big goal.

2 – Look for Inspiration

What is that big scary goal you want to achieve?

It may be writing a book, starting a business, buying a house, making money online, traveling to faraway places, investing in stocks or anything that sounds scary to you.

Most likely, there are many people who accomplished the goal before you. How did they do it?

Look for biographies, movies, websites, or videos of how others overcame their own little voice telling them You are not good enough and achieved the goal you are trying to achieve.

When I was thinking about writing a book, I would read biographies of my favorite authors such as On Writing by Stephen King.

He shares all the struggles he had to overcome to become a published writer.

He started writing stories for magazines and collecting rejection letters.

Once he had published some stories in magazines, his next scary goal was to write a novel.

He wrote and rewrote the manuscript for Carrie many times until he decided to throw it in the trash.

His wife fished it out and offered her help to finish it and send it out.

Carrie was a big success.

In this case, the encouragement of his wife to believe in himself was the push he needed to keep writing. This leads to tip number 3.

3 – Share Your Goal with Supportive People

Look for family, friends, or coworkers who see the best in you and encourage you to believe in yourself and achieve your goals.

Most people who believe in themselves have at least one supportive person who will provide encouragement when things are not working out.

If you cannot think of any supportive person you can always participate in online forums or Facebook groups.

Supportive people will share their experiences and help you see more options and possibilities.

Moreover, encouraging people will help you see your strengths and past successes so that you can believe in yourself again.

4 – Anticipate Difficulties

Changes and difficulties are inevitable.

There may be changes in the economy, technology, or priorities.

Moreover, if you know that certain difficult tasks will need to be completed keep them in the back of your mind.

Your subconscious mind will start trying to figure out the best action plan.

There are always many different ways to reach the same goal.

5 – Affirmations

Affirmations are statements that we repeat to ourselves hoping that our subconscious mind will accept them as true.

Simple statements such as I: 

• believe in myself

• will find a way to achieve this goal

• trust myself

• will do my best

Repeating affirmations will help you to trust in yourself and overcome difficult times.

If you need more help with affirmation. Here you will find how to be happy using affirmations.

6 – Visualization

Imagine your big goal as already achieved. Imagine that you already are where you want to be.

In addition, picturing in your mind that you have achieved your goal will help you to believe in your skills and abilities. This will increase your confidence and help you to achieve your goal.

Here are more tips on how to be happy using visualization.

7 – Positive Attitude

When the going gets rough and you are not sure if you believe in yourself anymore, having a positive attitude is crucial to keep going.

Moreover, it’s the reaction to a problem or failure that will determine how we will handle it. When things don’t go our way, the easiest thing is to yell, curse, and feel disappointed.

Our body tries to contain the frustration and we can feel our blood boiling inside of our veins. So what can we do when we feel disappointed?

Anticipating disappointment and considering as a possibility, will prepare our mind to better deal with problems.

A positive attitude means that you will think that something positive will come out of this situation.

After this roadblock, you will move forward toward the life you want to live.

8 – Meditation

If you find it difficult to believe in yourself, take some time to focus on all the achievements in your life.

Clear you mind of all the problems and stress around you and provide a break to your mind. A break so that your mind can take a new look at the problem.

Here are more tips on how to be happy practicing meditation.

9 – Take a Break

There are times when we obsess about a goal or about achieving a goal in a specific amount of time and it does not work out. Problems related to home, work, relationships, money or health pile up.

Now if you feel confident on your skills and abilities you will tell yourself that you will find a way to solve the problem.

It’s unrealistic to expect that whatever we want to do, it will go without obstacles.

10 – Keep Track of Your Progress

A key component to believe in yourself is to measure the progress you are making.

However, many people only evaluate their progress toward achieving their goals at the end of the year.

In December, they sit down and reflect on their progress toward their goals.

The problem with this is that you are missing all the little accomplishments that happened or not throughout the weeks and months that passed.

Most often than not, people end up feeling unimpressed with what they did.

Evaluating your progress daily, weekly, and monthly will help to keep your most important goal always in front of you and making sure you are making progress.

Here are 10 tips that will help you to believe in yourself for a happy life.

What is your favorite tip?

Which one do you use more often?

Let me know in the comments below.