Self-Efficacy

Self-efficacy is basically your success barometer. It’s a trait that can predict how successful you will be! What makes it even more awesome is that you can build and develop it in a short period of time. It’s almost like a superpower.

Self-efficacy is like what happens in the children’s story, “The Little Engine That Could.” You remember...It’s about a train that had to climb a big hill … and at first it wasn’t so sure it was possible.

It chanted, “I think I can, I think I can,” … which turned into “I know I can, I know I can,” … and eventually it pulled itself to the top of the hill.

Self-efficacy – the engine’s belief in itself that it could do hard things – is what powered that train up the mountain!

In a nutshell, self-efficacy is like self-confidence at the next level.

It’s the KNOWING that you can count on yourself when the chips are down … and that you can and will do your best whenever possible. When you challenge yourself and push yourself out of your comfort zone, your self-efficacy meter goes up.

We teach it to kids, but it falls by the wayside as we get older. There can be so many reasons we stop flexing our “self-efficacy muscles” … time, expectations (from others and from ourselves), disappointments, and even fear!

Over time, this can have a profound impact on your life, making it so you don’t even consider trying new things. We give up before we even start!

This is where the “comfort zone” comes in … and over time, that comfort zone can get smaller and smaller (and not very comfortable at all)!

So how do you work on building your self-efficacy? You do something that makes you uncomfortable. It doesn’t mean going bungee jumping or signing up for a marathon. It can be as simple (and as powerful) as deciding you are going to stick with a program for a month …

… and then following through with it, NO MATTER WHAT.

Even on days you don’t want to. Even if you’re tired or busy. Especially when you’re tired and busy.

There is a huge payoff in all of this: You realize your potential!

In the words of writer A.A. Milne in Winnie The Pooh, you learn:

“You are braver than you believe, stronger than you seem,

and smarter than you think.”–– Christopher Robin.

I KNOW you can do whatever you put your mind to. But do YOU know it?