My son told me that he read “If you believe you can achieve a goal, then you will achieve it”. He said that believing in oneself is crucial to succeed. I was pleased that he is seeking answers to questions that life is asking him. There was a lot of truth in what he was saying, and I added that we needed to understand self-belief in greater depth.

Self-belief is faith in yourself, as well as a commitment to yourself. Self-belief starts with following through on commitments that you make to yourself. Everytime you fulfil a commitment you made to yourself, your self-belief increases.

Self-belief is not a psych up exercise or talking in the air. It is the house you construct on the foundation of fulfilled commitments to yourself.

That’s why keeping commitments to yourself is sacred. Every time you break a commitment you made to yourself, you are weakening your self-belief and yourself.

I suggested to him that affirming his self-belief as “I will do whatever it takes to achieve this goal” could be very powerful. This affirmation emphasises that “Come what may, I will not lack in my efforts to achieve the goal”. The primary belief is in your ability and effort, and then follows the belief in achieving the results.

Everytime you lose motivation, this affirmation will remind you of the commitment you made to yourself, and push you to follow-through.

What percentage of commitments to yourself do you fulfil? How will you increase it?