There’s this awesome t-shirt that has a picture of the Loch Ness Monster with “The Important Thing is that I Believe in Myself” written below it. Naturally, I had to have it, and now it’s one of my most worn shirts. It’s cute, funny, and inspirational all at once! The quote on it is so fantastic because all great things come from a desire to do something and a belief that you can do it. If you don’t believe you can accomplish something, are you really going to try?

Believing in yourself is an interesting concept because so often we look for validation from each other to know we’re doing well, which helps build our confidence. When we’re young, this is a significant way to help us grow into who we are. Once we have some experience under our belt, we can use all of our past successes to drive us to do new and scary activities. Outside validation becomes less effective as we begin looking inside ourselves for tenacity.

Great innovators create new things using this method. Since what they’re doing is brand new, they can’t look at how someone else did it and learn from that. They have to think about times in their past where they have done a new thing and were successful and use that vision to guide them and give them the confidence they need to try it. The memory they use from the past may have been similar to what they’re doing now, but it doesn’t have to be. In this situation, the most important thing is that the event from the past is something new and successful. The more similar the past scenario is to the new one, the more effective it will be to help increase one’s certainty and provide more learning opportunities.

Using past experiences to learn from our mistakes is the best way to build your confidence because there’s no doubt. If someone tells you that you can do something, you may end up questioning their words and your ability to achieve your goal. Previous events are proof that you can succeed and those facts leave no room for doubt. Believe in yourself.