Self-Efficacy

Self-efficacy refers to your belief in your ability to succeed in a specific task or situation. This confidence affects your motivation, your behavior, and your performance in a variety of situations like work, school, and health. Self-efficacy is specific to a particular endeavor, such as believing you can give a successful presentation or stick to a new diet. It is developed through a variety of methods, which are described below.

Building Self-Efficacy

Self-efficacy can be developed through the following methods:

Mastery Experiences - facing challenges and overcoming them,
Social Modeling - observing others succeed,
Feedback - encouragement and feedback from trusted individuals, and
Emotional Intelligence - observing and controlling how you respond to your performance both physically and emotionally.

1. Mastery Experiences

Mastery experiences are essential to building self-efficacy. When you succeed at something, you are able to build a powerful belief in your ability. Failure, on the other hand, can undermine these feelings, particularly if you are still in the early phases of building a sense of personal efficacy. So it is essential to strike the right balance between challenging and achievable.

How to set achievable goals using the SMART framework:

Specific: Clearly define what you want to accomplish and what steps are needed.
Measurable: Determine how you will track your progress and know when you have achieved your goal. For example, instead of "eat healthier," use "eat at least one vegetable with every dinner".
Achievable: Ensure the goal is realistic and within your control. Consider the time, resources, and skills you have. If a goal seems too big, break it down into smaller parts.
Relevant: Make sure the goal aligns with your overall objectives and is personally meaningful to you. Understanding the deeper reason behind your goal will help you stay committed when things get tough.

Time-bound: Set a clear deadline or timeline for your goal to create a sense of urgency.
Write it down: Studies show that writing down your goals can significantly increase your likelihood of achieving them.
Anticipate obstacles: Think about potential roadblocks and plan how you might overcome them before they happen.
Share your goals: Tell a friend, family member, or colleague about your goal to build accountability.

2. Social Modeling

Another good way to enhance self-efficacy is to observe the successes of others, especially people you see as being a lot like you. The goal is to not just observe how it is done, but to observe that it was done. There was success. Here are a couple of tips for making this work for you.

Who you observe, your model, must be someone you see as like you rather than someone with exception skills or talents.
The goal of your model must be identifiable, and it must be possible to determine that it was successfully achieved. If your model is trying to become a better person, how would you know whether there was success?

3. Feedback

Getting positive feedback from others can also help improve your sense of self-efficacy. For example, your supervisor at work telling you that you are doing a good job can be encouraging. Feedback from friends, mentors, and people who you respect can help you feel greater confidence in your abilities.

Of course, you should avoid asking for feedback from people you know are more likely to have a negative or critical view of your performance.

4. Emotional Intelligence

Another way to boost self-efficacy is to learn to manage your emotional responses to a challenging task. In particular, focus on:

reducing stress and anxiety
avoiding negative thoughts
engage in positive self-encouragement

These of course require a fair degree of self-monitoring to detect when stress begins to rise and negative thoughts start occurring.