1. Practise the Skills

The first step towards gaining confidence is to practice the required skills. If one has to excel in a particular task, then practicing improves the skillsets. For example, if one has to win a horse race, the first action should be to practice well enough on the empty grounds for several times to take an entry to the race.

The trick about practicing is that, it cannot be done easily as said. There comes a lot of internal barriers like, ‘I am incapable’, ‘I don’t have the courage’, or ‘I can’t do it’ etc. All these thoughts and apprehensions stop oneself to start practicing to improve the skills. The proverb goes, ‘Practice makes a man perfect’ and in every sense, ‘Practice also is the key is become confident.’

2. Apply them Effectively

Once there is good amount of practice, it has to be applied in the actual scenario. In our example, one has to get in the horse race and apply the skillsets learnt during the practice sessions. Well, this comes with stepping out of comfort zone into the challenging place. The natural response triggers discomfort bodily sensations or intimidating thoughts.

If we get hooked on to uncomfortable responses repeatedly and escape from the actual situations, there is no scope for confidence to improve. To apply the skills effectively, one has to focus on the actions instead of popping thoughts or feelings. When the horse is running, the focus should be on riding the horse faster instead of focussing on thoughts that are emerging from the mind. Mindfulness proves to be a powerful tool to help improve the focus on actions and take actions towards goals.

3. Assess the Results

Once the action has been taken at the actual situation, assessing the outcome should be done. Analysing, what worked at the situation and what did not work. The entire assessing process should be done in a non-judgmental way either not to get carried away by the correctness or get sunk by the unfavourable outcome.

It is normal for the human mind to think to be perfect in the tasks, to be harsh when something does not go the way as needed. Self-encouragement and self-compassion helps in healthy assessment to plan for the next course of action.

4. Modify as Needed

The final step based on the assessments of the results is to modify actions as required to your task and situation. Continue what worked when applied the skillsets and modify action plans for what did not work.

Repeat the entire cycle by practising new skill sets, applying them on the real situations, assessing the results and again modifying if needed. This way there is enormous scope of improvement and learning eventually leading to mastering the skills. The cycle can be repeated as and when required to enhance confidence of the desired task.