BELIEVE in Yourself — An Underrated Career Skill
Daily it happens: smart, talented, or hard-working people get stuck in career not because they lack skills. Because they don't believe in themselves.
How can we expect other people to believe in us when we don't do it? Imagine a manager chooses such a person and promotes them. This person will fail. For sure.
Because a person who doesn't believe in themselves will break down when problems, obstacles, and strong challenges appear.
It's different when you choose a person who believes in themselves, even if they are not the perfect fit. This person will make things happen because they believe in themselves. They will learn, try to figure out things, and fight for it.
Believing in oneself is the starting point of all actions that come after this: Taking action, building, and learning confidence.
Sometimes this belief can be ignited from external factors.
A former student of mine received his Master this week. He made it parallel to his full-time job. So far, so good. But 10 years back, he was taking private classes to be able to finish school.
He was a problematic pupil, making problems, doubting himself, and his future on the razor's edge.
But then a teacher saw his potential. He is intelligent, but he lacks support. She believed in him. She said the magic words: "You can do more. I believe in you."
His eyes wide open, it clicked. He learned hard, finished high school, got hired in a world top 10 company, worked for top managers, went abroad, and has a career.
His life changed overnight because he started believing in himself.
Confidence is the result of belief in action.
But we don't always have this person who says such a sentence, and it does not make sense to wait for this person. Better is building a strong belief in oneself.
Building Believe follows the cycle:
Let's break this down...
Maxwell Maltz: The Self-Image Loop
Whatever we do, we do it in consistency with our self-image. The self-image is our identity that we build over the years as a kid, a teenager, and an adult.
“You can’t consistently act in a way that is inconsistent with your self-image.” — Psycho-Cybernetics, Maxwell Maltz
Imagine a person who thinks they are a loser. Whatever this person does, they will unconsciously sabotage themselves just to lose because this is their identity.
In the same way, imagine a winning person. Even in the moment of a defeat, this person will spot a learning or a positive outcome only to justify that they won.
This is not positive thinking. Belief is not “positive thinking.” It’s your internal identity system.
The only way to change your identity is to change your behavior. You have to change the programming code of your operating system. This will change your results.
Change your identity → you change your behavior → you change your results.
The Tactic:
Answer the following question:
“Who am I becoming?”
Describe the person you want to believe you are — not just what you want to achieve.
James Clear: Habits Create Belief
Now, we know who we want to become. It's time to feed this identity with the appropriate action and even more, build the habits that feed this identity.
“Every action is a vote for the type of person you wish to become.” — Atomic Habits
You don’t build belief by thinking. You build it by doing small things consistently. Each small success tells your brain: “See? I can do this.”
The tactic:
Start a micro habit that reinforces self-trust.
Examples:
- End your day by writing one thing you did well.
- Keep one small promise to yourself daily.
- Start what you said you’d start — even for 5 minutes.
- Speak up in a meeting.
- Take over the moderation or the minutes in a meeting.
- Build this one Excel or OnePager that is needed.
Each kept promise = one brick in your belief system.
Ted Lasso: Belief Is Contagious
Ted Lasso is a sports comedy-drama television series from Apple. It has won 11 Emmy awards among plenty of other awards.
The main character Ted Lasso, is an American Football coach with a positive attitude who started coaching an English football team (non-American football).
His positive attitude was manifested in that he always believed in the positive side of every person, even if the person was mean or even betrayed him.
Why am I sharing this with you?
This series depicts what happens when somebody has an unshakable belief in something. The series was celebrated for this reason.
BELIEVE in positivity.
In the series, Ted Lasso put a sign above his office in the locker room to remind his team. At first, the team was hesitant, thinking he was a jerk. But with time, they started believing.
Belief spreads. When you believe, others start believing too. In teams, it builds trust and emotional safety.
Imagine that a person believes in you although you failed or did something wrong. They believe you can do better. INCREDIBLE feeling.
In leadership, it builds credibility and followership.
The Tactic:
Share belief openly. When you build your habit, see the results, start believing in your actions and results. Say things like:
“I know you can handle this.”
“I trust your judgment.”
“We’ve done hard things before — we’ll do this too.”
When you give belief, you multiply it because people will say: "Let him/her handle this."
Wrap up: The Belief Feedback Loop
In the table below, I have summarised the steps. Note: This is a cycle because we evolve and grow over time.
Once you build your new identity, it will become your old one. You build a new one.
| Step | Action | Outcome |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Define who you want to be | Identity direction |
| 2 | Build small habits that prove it | Evidence of belief |
| 3 | Repeat and reinforce | Confidence and momentum |
| 4 | Share belief with others | Leadership presence |
🔚 Summary
You don’t need to wait to feel confident.
Confidence is the result of belief in action.
Start believing in yourself by writing down who you want to become. Then build habits — in small, practical ways. This will feed your new identity.
Because just like in Ted Lasso:
You have to believe before you can become.