Overcome self-doubt. If you lack self-confidence, you will always feel like you’re at the mercy of other people. No one but you is stopping you from achieving what you want to accomplish. It’s time to identify the areas in which you doubt yourself and remove those barriers.

Push through self-limiting beliefs. Find your limits by exposing yourself to different situations and pushing through the uncomfortable. Once you have confidence in yourself, you’ll be amazed what you can accomplish.

Never confuse memory with facts. Revisit the facts of a memory loaded with self-limiting beliefs and try to gain a more accurate perspective on the event. Talk with others that might have a different perspective.

Talk to yourself. Be positive, because the way you talk to yourself influences your neurobiological response to it. When you say, I know what to do here or see things as a challenge rather than a problem, you’ve turned your response into a positive one.

Think positive to overcome your negativity bias. your natural negativity bias has kept us safe from danger for thousands of years. This negativity bias can chisel away at our confidence because we’re hardwired to pay attention to all that we’ve done wrong.

Label the emotions for what they truly are and move on. Do not enter into inner dialogue about the negative emotion because then it becomes more powerful.

Raise your curiosity levels. If we remain curious, we remain teachable and our minds and hearts grow larger every day. We can retain our beginner’s mind by always looking forward and discovering new experiences and uncovering new information.

Face your fears. When we don’t feel in control, we don’t think clearly because our emotional brain is in the driver’s seat and takes over. This is why fear often seems random and irrational—our emotions are in control.

Think about your worst fear. Spend time with it. Now make your fear worse by getting closer to it. Imagine the worst that could happen. Now focus on your breathing. Feel your body relax. See, you didn’t die, did you? You’re on your way to conquering your fear.

Preparing for Your Journey. You need to take stock of where you are, think about where you want to go, get yourself in the right mindset for your journey, and commit yourself to starting it and staying with it.

Start Managing Your Mind. Learn to pick up and defeat the negative self-talk which can destroy your confidence.

Push yourself out of your comfort zone. Volunteer for a project that will help you build new skills. Apply for a job that feels like a stretch but matches your interests. Sign up to present or speak at an event and tackle your fear of public speaking head-on.

Visualize what you want as a first step to meeting a new challenge. By imagining yourself in the job you want, you can create that vision for those around you, too. Give yourself a head start by getting into character. Want to take an executive role? Be sure to dress, talk, and act like an executive.

Assess your competencies.Write down all of the skills you bring to the table right now. Don’t forget to include broader talents that can help your organization succeed -- now and in the future.

Create your own environment.Work with your team in a way that feels true and honest, sharing your competencies with complete confidence. In doing so, you will brand yourself within your organization and begin to attract people with similar values to your team.

Have others instill confidence in you. People who are able to cut through bureaucracy and make decisions quickly are rewarded for having the confidence to get the job done. Having others reinforce this belief will help you realize your potential. 

Fake it ‘til you make it. You are more competent than you know. So act like you know it all! Adopting that mindset will help you take more risks and overcome any fear of failure.

Be the change you wish to see. Once you’ve taken steps to build your own confidence, don’t forget to give someone else a hand up. Through peer coaching, you can partner with others to create a positive change.

Act like you’re in a good mood, even if you aren’t. Demonstrating a positive attitudend showing resilience—even if you just got yelled at—are two ways to come across well among people you work with.

Think about what you say and how you say it. Speak in a clear and level voice and choose your words deliberately. Body language is important, too: posture, polite head nods, and other ways of showing you’re engaged.

Let the little things get to you. If you allow the little bits of positive feedback—whether from others or your own sense of a job well done—to grow into something big, then you’ll gain the confidence you deserve bit by bit.

And in the end, the more you act confident, the more you’ll be confident. So go out, paste on a smile, fix your posture, kill any negative thought that pops into your head, and constantly tell yourself that you’ve got this. Try it out: by the end of the day, you’ll realize that you really do.

Find Your Comfort Zone. Whatever it is that makes you feel comfortable, get into that zone. You’re not there to hide from your problems or dwell on them. You’re there to recharge; just like your muscles and mind need time to recharge, so does your mood. Take a staycation in your comfort zone to regain your composure.

Change Your Thoughts. Remember, most of your problems are in your head. That’s not to say they don’t exist – merely that you’re allowing them to affect you. Stand up to and for yourself, and you’ll learn ways to stand up to and for everyone else.

Smile Like You Mean It. You’ll be seen as a leader rather than a follower, and things will be more likely to go your way.Diplomacy is strong, so put a smile on your face, and make the world a better place.

Don’t Slouch! If you’re slouched over, people assume you’re weaker. This is how nature works – every plant and animal species on this planet understands survival of the fittest, and you need to look like you’re fit. Make an effort to sit up and stand up straight and tall.

Take Baby Steps. Focus on your path, and understand it’ll take baby steps to get where you want. You’ll soon be taking baby steps from confidence to full-on success in life.

Clean Yourself Up. Cleanliness is close to godliness (or so I’ve heard). Hygiene is vital to your confidence – it’s hard to feel good about yourself when you’re stained, sweaty and smelly. No matter what your circumstances in life are, do your best to stay clean, as it’s the key to your confidence.

Face Your Fears. Face at least one of your fears. When you survive, you’ll be that much more confident.

Define Yourself. Learn how to define yourself. Set your rules and boundaries and follow them. These are your morals and ethics, and they’re the foundation of who you are. Never forget that.

Live In The Present. nstead of being upset about losing an important client or failing a test, you’ll be grateful for the air you breathe, the water you drink, the food you eat, and the people you love. Focus on the now, because it’s all you truly have.

Take Inventory. If you’re reading this, you also have a lot of secondary stuff, such as a computer, the Internet, the knowledge to use it, the ability to read. You have a lot of skills and resources available to you, even if they’re not the ones you wish they were. Figure out what you have, and find ways to use them.

Socialize. Expand your social circle. Go to public places and interact with strangers. If you fail to make an impression or completely blow it, who cares? They weren’t in your life before, and you won’t miss them.

Play A Game. In real life you may be a boring file clerk with a dead-end life, but in a video game, you can be whoever you want. Every video game console (as well as the majority of computer and mobile games) has achievements. Hunt down some easy wins to jumpstart your spunk.

Try Again. If your lack of confidence is caused by failure, pick up and try again in any way possible.It doesn’t have to be immediately – you can practice & evolve prior to trying again. This time, however, go in as an experienced veteran who took a few licks and got back up stronger, faster and smarter than before.

It’s easy to lose your confidence. Unexpected things happen, and you can very easily find yourself on the short end of the stick. Even though it seems like you’re the only one it’s happening to, we all experience inequalities and failures. Stick it out, and you’ll eventually get the confidence it takes to succeed.

I have observed, through many years of living in north Brooklyn, that people, for example an ostensible group of friends, can be dangerous to one another.

Being the first black Nobel laureate, and the first African, the African world considered me personal property. I lost the remaining shreds of my anonymity, even to walk a few yards in London, Paris or Frankfurt without being stopped.

My father was a classic intellectual. From him I learned devotion, and I also learned about the life of the mind.

The first prerogative of an artist in any medium is to make a fool of himself.

The South African government, unlike a lot of African governments, isn't poor.

Marriage A legal or religious ceremony by which two persons of the opposite sex solemnly agree to harass and spy on each other for ninety nine years or until death do them join.

Shame on me if I don't try to do more with what I have. It would be... a terrible thing to waste this opportunity to try to make a difference.

I have a hell-fire temper.

A novel must be exceptionally good to live as long as the average cat.

It's great that I can look up a fact instantly on my cellphone, but I miss the days in my room with a dog-eared, text-heavy paperback, immersed in the statistics of crime and punishment and lunacy, completely alone with the narrative of human depravity.

Africa for the Africans... at home and abroad!

It is hard to rationalise or explain why you love what you love. But I have always been interested in science and maths, and in high school I was struck that you could use maths to understand nature and science.

Physical expression was my first language: Before I was an actor, I was a dancer, an acrobat, a mime and a street performer.