The Power of Self Belief

Part 1
ESSF0014: Fundamentals of Lifelong and
Personal Development
Positive Attitudes: The Power of Your
Mind

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Locus of Control

• Locus of Control
• Definition
• Where an individual believes the outcomes of their situations and behaviors are
based.
• Internal Locus of Control
• The belief that you are in control of what happens.
• External Locus of Control
• The belief that others are in control of what happens.

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Positive Attitudes

• Preparing your mind for success

• Reframe your thinking
• Get rid of destructive or irrational beliefs
• Meditate
• Try humor therapy

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Reframe Your Thinking (and get rid of your
destructive or irrational beliefs)
• Positive Self-Talk
• How you can change negative thoughts to positive
1. The situation/trigger. Briefly describe the situation that led to your unpleasant
feelings.
For example, “a work presentation”.
2. Feelings. What do you feel?
For example, “Anxiety, guilt, doubt, fear.”
3. Unhelpful thoughts/images. Identify the negative thinking (or “hot thought”) behind
your feelings.
For example, “My presentation is going to go horrible, and my boss is going to think
that I’m bad at my job. I’m a failure.”
4. Facts that support the thought. Find evidence that supports your unhelpful thought.
For example, “My boss has told me in the past that she’s disappointed with my
presentation skills.” and “I didn’t prepare as much as I should have.”
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Reframe Your Thinking (cont.)
5. Facts that don’t support the thought. Facts that provide evidence against your
unhelpful thought.
For example, “I have worked on my presentation skills since my poor review and I
have improved.” and “I’m not a failure and I’m doing my best.” and “Everyone has
bad days at work.”
6. Give an alternative/more balance thought. Now that you’ve considered the facts,
write down a healthier way of thinking.
For example, “While I have struggled with presentations before, I’ve practiced and
prepared for this presentation and have no proof that this will not go well.”
7. Outcome. Re-rate how you feel now.
“Less anxious” “calmer” “reassured”
(Taken from http://ohsheglows.com/)

• Read more: Go to http://www.usc.edu.au/media/3850/Reframingyourthinking.pdf

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Meditate

• Definition:
• focus one's mind for a period of time,
in silence or with the aid of chanting,
for religious or spiritual purposes or as
a method of relaxation.
• "I set aside time every day to write and
meditate"
• think deeply about (something).
• "he went off to meditate on the new idea"
• synonyms: contemplate, think about,
consider, ponder, cogitate, muse

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Humor

• Tips
• Tell appropriate jokes
• Keep a humor file
• Simply SMILE and laugh out loud
more often
• Look for humor in every situation
you can
• Finally, remember to laugh at
yourself

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Self Esteem and Self Confidence

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Self-Esteem: Definition
• Experience of feeling competent to cope with the basic challenges
in life and of being worthy of happiness
• Positive overall evaluation of oneself
• Self-concept refers to what we think about ourselves
• Contribute to good mental health
• Profit from negative feedback

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Consequences of Positive Self-Esteem
• Career success
• Better motivated
• Perform better on job
• Hold more challenging jobs
• Higher job satisfaction
• Organizational Prosperity
• Critical source of competitive advantage in
an information society
• Being creative and innovative
• Taking personal responsibility for problems
• Critical source of competitive advantage in
an information society
• Feeling of independence (yet work as
teammates)
• Trusting one’s own capabilities
• Taking initiative to solve problems
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Negative Consequences of Low Self-Esteem

• Envying too many people

• Might affect Romantic and Social relationships

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Enhance Self-Esteem

• Attain legitimate accomplishments

• Be aware of personal strengths
• Minimize setting and interactions that detract from your feelings of
competence
• Talk and socialize frequently with people who boost your self-
esteem
• Model behavior of people with high self-esteem

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Self Efficacy and Self-Confidence

• Self-efficacy is confidence in ability to carry out specific task in

contrast to generalized self-confidence
• Tend to have good job performance
• Set relatively high goals
• Self confidence is a feeling of trust in one's abilities, qualities, and
judgement.

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Sources of Self Confidence

• Actual experience
• Experience of others or modeling
• Social comparison
• Social persuasion
• Process of convincing another person
• e.g. Successful negotiation
• Emotional arousal
• e.g. Listening to motivational speech

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Develop and Strengthened Self-Confidence
Develop positive psychological
capital
• Create an inventory of personal assets • Hope
and accomplishments
• Develop a solid knowledge base
• Self-efficacy
• Use positive self-talk • Optimism
• Avoid negative self–talk • Resiliency
• Use positive visual imagery
• Avoid over-confidence
• Set high personal expectations
• Strive for peak performance
• Behave as if you feel confident
• Bounce back from setbacks and
embarrassments
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End of Part 1
References:
DuBrin A. (2014) Human Relations for Career and Personal Success:
Concepts, Applications, and Skills, 10/e. Pearson
Colbert B. (2015) Navigating Your Future Success, 2/E. Prentice Hall

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