Self-belief: The Key To Lasting Motivation.

If I have the belief that I can do it, I shall surely acquire the capacity to do it even if I may not have it at the beginning.- Mahatma Gandhi.

You are progressing well in your weight loss journey; it’s been two weeks of minimal sugar, then it’s cheat day, and all the fitness gurus suggest cutting out sugar gradually, so you make a cup of hot chocolate.

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As you open the fridge, you spot the cheesecake your neighbour brought for Thanksgiving sitting on the shelf, looking delicious and tempting.

You tell yourself, “Stop!” “One cup of chocolate is fine, no more sugar”.

As you turn to leave, you stop, place the cup on the kitchen counter, open the fridge, cut a large slice and proceed to indulge.

It tastes so delicious; you’d miss the coffee and cream cheese feeling.

You promise you’ll work out more to compensate for the extra calories. But you keep breaking your promise each time and ask yourself,

“What is the point if I just end up not keeping my word?”

You tell your friends,

“I can’t stick to my fitness goals; I’m just not as strong-willed as you guys.”

Can you relate to the example above? You’ve got these ambitions — maybe it’s about getting in shape, starting a business, or mastering a new language. We all know that urge to dive in and make it happen.

You start with gusto, full of excitement and determination at the beginning. But as time passes, that initial spark fizzles out, and eventually, we find ourselves giving up.

Why motivation and persistence aren’t enough.

Often, motivation and persistence alone aren’t enough when trying to achieve your goal.

If you don’t believe you can, no motivation or persistence can help you achieve it.

Have you ever wondered what your thoughts are about your abilities? Do you genuinely believe that you can?

Bandura’s Theory of Self-efficacy.

Albert Bandura’s Theory states that self-efficacy is the belief in one’s ability to execute the behaviours necessary to achieve specific goals.

Do you believe in your capacity to do what is required to complete a plan?

Can you remain persistent in the face of difficulty or setbacks? e.g. when you come face to face with a slice of cheesecake repeatedly?

Bandura highlights four significant things that influence our self-efficacy:

• Past successful experiences — how much success or failure we’ve had.
• Seeing others succeed or fail.
• The level of encouragement we receive from ourselves and others
• Stress and Anxiety when faced with challenges or setbacks.

How Self-efficacy Affects Decision-making.

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I want to ask you 2 million-dollar questions:

1. When do you become motivated enough to complete a task?

Probably when you are seeing the results you want. Result is the evidence you need to prove that you can do sh*t.

2. When do you become persistent enough to persevere through challenges and setbacks?

Probably when you believe you can overcome them. You trust yourself to find a solution, a workaround. As T. Harv Eker said, “Believe you can, and you’re halfway there.”

Self-efficacy is essential in deciding how motivated or persistent we’ll be when faced with challenges.

When you believe in your problem-solving abilities and have had past success, you’ll:

• Keep trying, and not give up easily, even if it’s hard.
• Better regulate your emotions and reactions when things go wrong.
• Adjust your plans instead of prematurely throwing in the towel.
• Cheer yourself on.

The opposite is also true; when your self-efficacy is low, i.e. you don’t believe you can accomplish a task, you’ll:

• Give up quickly before exploring other possible ways of achieving success.
• Think your efforts won’t make a difference.
• Feel a sense of helplessness when trying to overcome obstacles.
• Feel accomplishing your goal is impossible or highly unlikely.

How Self-efficacy Helps Regulate Emotions and Reactions.

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Self-efficacy serves as an internal compass when deciding task difficulty and how to handle challenges and setbacks.

It dramatically impacts your motivation, persistence in challenging situations, and how effectively you manage your emotions and reactions.

People with high self-efficacy:

• Feel more confident and sure that they can handle difficulty and setbacks.
• Are less stressed even when things go wrong.
• Handle criticism positively.

People with low self-efficacy:

• Often feel anxious, stressed and overwhelmed.
• Are easily frustrated.
• Take all feedback personally.

Simple ways to immediately increase your self-efficacy.

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1. Use visuals — track your progress visually; you can’t believe it till you see it.
2. Surround yourself with people who believe in your abilities.
3. Use gamification. Give your challenge levels that are easy to start and increase difficulty subsequently.
4. Make a list of small wins each day. Start small and gradually increase the difficulty level.

Borrow inspiration from these people who beat low self-efficacy.

1. Chris Williamson’s advice:

Chris Williamson is a former contestant in the popular reality TV show Love Island and a former club promoter.

He overcame being chronically unpopular throughout his schooling, bullying, a lack of friends, and a purpose to become an entrepreneur, hosting the Modern Wisdom podcast, which has over 70M downloads.

His take on building trust in yourself:

• Turn whatever you want to accomplish into a promise to yourself.
• Let the commitment be so simple and easy that you can never break it even in adversity. Then, increase the level of difficulty just like in video games.
• Use those promises to build a stack of evidence/ undeniable truth to demonstrate that you can trust yourself to remain persistent till you see results.

2. David Goggins

David Goggins is a retired Navy SEAL chief and the toughest man alive. He is the only member of the U.S Armed Forces to complete Navy SEAL training, U.S Army Ranger School and Air Force tactical air controller training.

He overcame an abusive alcoholic father, learning disabilities and being obese at 300 pounds to complete marathons and participate in over 60 ultra-triathlons.

His advice on increasing mental toughness:

• Face setbacks repeatedly till you find a breakthrough; this increases mental toughness.
• Tell your brain where you want to go and how you want to get there; Let that become your new norm.
• Give your mind no way out. No loophole, no leeway, till this becomes your new modus operandi.

3. Leila Hormozi

Leila is the wife of Alex Hormozi, author of 3 best-selling books. He sold his company, Gym Launch, for 46.2 million dollars.

Leila overcame feeling lost in life, getting arrested six times in 18 months, being 85 lbs overweight, doing drugs and drinking alcohol to becoming a first-generation entrepreneur, investor and philanthropist.

She is the CEO of acquisition.com and has generated sales worth over $100M before age 29.

Her take on brainwashing yourself to success:

• Build a high frustration tolerance by accepting and acknowledging setbacks and challenges as part of the process.
• Instead of asking yourself, “Why am I (fill in the blank), ask instead, “What happens two years from now if I don’t (fill in the blank?)?” She calls it negative visualisation.
• Train yourself to act despite your thoughts and emotions; prove them wrong.

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Key Takeaways.

1. Self-efficacy determines how motivated and persistent you will be when facing adversity.
2. It helps regulate your emotions and reactions better when faced with challenges.
3. You can improve it incrementally.
4. Self-efficacy is about building trust in yourself incrementally.

Conclusion.

Believing in what you can do can completely change how you feel, what you do and how you do it.

When you see social media influencers super motivated and not giving up quickly, you immediately start comparing yourself, wondering why your motivation wanes fast.

But here is the thing: before trying to match their effort, ask yourself whether you believe in yourself enough to accomplish whatever goal you have before you. Do you trust your skills can get you there?

If not, start stacking up evidence that proves you’re good at enough.

As Alex Hormozi said, “You don’t become confident by shouting affirmations in the mirror, but by having a stack of undeniable proof that you are who you say you are. Outwork your self-doubt.”

Why wait? Go out and build your stack of undeniable proof — every step you take adds to how much you believe in yourself.