Waiting until you’re ready—it’s one of the most dangerous games you can play when it comes to getting what you want out of your life and business. What most people mean when they say, “I’m not ready,” is “I want to be confident in my ability to have a successful experience.” 

The problem with that idea is that confidence is not the catalyst point of success. Confidence is the byproduct of taking action on the journey to success. Luckily, you don’t have to wait until you reach your goals to build momentum and feel confident in what you’re doing. 

Here are three ways to build your confidence quickly so you can reach your goals faster. The best part? These work even if you’ve been spinning your wheels for a while. If you’re ready to take action on these three simple steps, you can find yourself creating powerful momentum in the direction of your desires.

1. Build on Certainty

You’re likely to find yourself in at least one of these two places on your business growth journey: facing a new goal or getting stuck while trying to achieve one that you’ve been working on. One of the reasons your confidence can falter in these situations is because there’s an uncertainty that comes from doing something new, as well as a confusion that happens when old methods expire that used to work, leaving you unsure about what to do next. Whenever you don’t know what to do, you can get caught in decision paralysis. 

Here’s how to resolve that: Focus on the things you’re good at and that you’re certain about. This should be something you love or that you’re good at. This will create the right momentum because you don’t have to fight an internal battle of “but I’m not good at that” to get things to move. If you’re not sure what those actions could be, try this: 

Take out a piece of paper and fold it in half long ways to create two columns. In column one, list out all of the things that you’re good at, whether or not they have anything to do with your business. 

For example, maybe you’re really good at talking on the phone or you’re the person everyone comes to when they need some guidance. Maybe you’re really good at brainstorming solutions or creating epic IG graphics. No matter what it is, if you’re good at it or doing it brings you joy, write it down. 

In column two, list out your goals (bonus points if you break them down into smaller goal chunks). For example, if you had the goal of losing 20 pounds over the next six months, you might break that down by creating the goal of working out four days a week for the first two months and then working out five days a week after that. Looking at columns one and two together, which things in column one can help you achieve the goals you listed in column two? 

For example, if you wanted to increase your income and one of your subgoals was to have 10 additional sales conversations every month, then your skill of being the person people want to open up to and get advice from would be helpful in accomplishing that goal. It gives you a clear place to start. Use your communication and relationship building skills to book and nail those sales conversations. 

“A dream becomes a goal when action is taken toward its achievement.” – Bo Bennett

2. Take Action

It’s easy to get lost in your head. When that happens, you can tense up and feel stuck. This is when you need to remember that motion creates emotion. The more you move in the direction of your goals, the faster you’ll find confidence within and build momentum. 

It’s okay if the action you’re taking isn’t even remotely on the same planet as perfect. Perfection is simply a waste of time that will keep you trailing behind the rest of the leaders in your industry. 

“Fortune favors the bold” is a powerful Latin proverb and endures for a reason. The idea isn’t to get it right and achieve all of your goals right this second by taking action. The whole point is simply to move. Here’s why. 

When you move, you receive data from your environment on what’s actually working or not working. If the action you take moves you further away from your goal, you’re likely to learn quickly and adjust. The information you receive on what not to do is just as important (if not more so) than the information you receive from what’s going well. 

Albert Einstein said, “Failure is success in progress.” You don’t learn boundaries, adaptability, and new level mastery from constant wins. Growth comes from course correcting mistakes, not avoiding them. 

It doesn’t matter how insignificant you feel the action you want to take is—just move. The faster you take one action, the faster you’ll build momentum and find yourself gaining wins (even if there are a few oopses along the way). 

3. Build Rejection Tolerance

Rejection isn’t easy for anyone. When you work for something and you believe in it, it’s hard to imagine anyone else not seeing your grand vision or wanting to be a part of it. However, no one is immune from the sting of being rejected. That being said, you can build up a powerful tolerance to it that will make you more nimble, adaptable, and knowledgeable.  

Rejection is one of the ways you can grow. If you don’t figure out what you’re bad at, you won’t find what you’re good at. And if you don’t find your areas of opportunity for growth, then you’ll be stuck at the same level, unsure of why you can’t move forward. There are lessons in loss if you’re willing to see them and learn from them. 

You see, there’s a false idea that wins will make you confident. Not true. Wins can give you a momentary glimpse of how confidence feels. But true confidence comes from your belief and trust in yourself to get back up after something has knocked you down with the full understanding that you will still reach your goals. The belief that you will find a way forward, even if you don’t know how in this moment. Because no matter what, the one thing that is always true is that your failures are simply the crucible to greater victories.

“It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all, in which case you have failed by default.” – J. K. Rowling

Give yourself permission to fail so that you can take the action that will get you unstuck and eventually lead you to your success.

How do you maintain your confidence & momentum in the right direction? Share your thoughts with us below!