3 Simple Ways to Enhance Your Self-Efficacy

Increase the belief in your ability to achieve your goals.

Imagine someone with a goal of trying to become more healthy through exercising more regularly and eating good quality foods. If they have never done this before or have failed in the past, they will likely have a lack of confidence in the belief in their ability to achieve their goal of becoming more healthy.

With that being said, the majority of us have new year goals. Or, we have existing goals that we are still working towards. It’s great to have different tricks and strategies to help us achieve them and they are needed. But, I can tell you now, one of the best things to increase is the belief in your ability to achieve these goals, or in other words, your self-efficacy.

Psychologist Albert Bandura coined the term self-efficacy and defined it as, “a person’s particular set of beliefs that determine how well one can execute a plan of action in prospective situations.”

We can have all the tricks in the world to help us achieve a goal, but if our belief in our skillset is low, it’s hard to attain the goals we have set.

Research has found that the stronger the belief individuals have in their ability to achieve their goals, the more likely it is that they not only set challenging goals but also, they have a stronger commitment in achieving them.

Fortunately for us, self-efficacy isn’t completely hardwired. We can foster it and make it stronger. Today, I want to share with you three simple ways to enhance your self-efficacy, so you have greater confidence in your skills to help you accomplish the goals you have set.

Remember the Times You Achieved Your Goals

Our experiences shape our belief in our ability to achieve different tasks. As Bandura said:

“Positive and negative experiences can influence the ability of an individual to perform a given task. If one has performed well at a task previously, he or she is more likely to feel competent.”

A study published in 2016 found that the greatest variable that increased teachers' self-efficacy was ‘mastery experiences’ which, simply put, is thinking about our experiences of accomplishing different goals and tasks, the outcome of them, and thinking about what we have acquired from accomplishing these tasks.

The reality is that for the vast majority, we think about the negatives too much or negative events stick in our heads more, thanks to a psychological trick known as negativity bias. This weakens our self-efficacy.

But, the theory and research tell us that by emphasizing and celebrating our success and thinking about the skills we have acquired from previous experiences we can boost our chances of achieving our goals because of the belief in our ability increases.

How to implement this:

1. Make a list of goals you have accomplished: Think about the times when you have achieved the goals you set out and note them down. This allows you to raise awareness of your positive experiences.
2. Think about the skills you used that helped you: Think about the specific skills you had to display to help you achieve the goal. Was it determination, staying organized, or showing flexibility in your approach? This shows you that you’ve got the skills to accomplish your goals. You can then think of utilizing these same skills again to help you with your current goal.
3. Use empowering phrases to celebrate your success: “I showed brilliant initiative to achieve this goal” or “This was a tough task but I was able to complete it even through adversity.” Encourage yourself.

Make yourself aware of your achievements. It can help with boosting your self-efficacy, which will increase your chances of attaining your goal.

Use ‘Time-Perspective’ to Boost Self-Efficacy

Psychologists Phillip Zimbardo and John Boyd constructed the notion of time perspective. It involves unconsciously putting experiences into different time frames and that our behaviors and decisions are influenced by what time frame we put our experiences in.

A brilliant study published in 2019 highlighted the importance of time perspective on self-efficacy and goal achievement. The researchers found individuals who focused on both a ‘positive past’ and a ‘projective positive future’ time frame had an increased self-efficacy. These individuals also had a higher chance of achieving their goals compared to those who only focused on a future time frame or those who had simply a general plan on how to achieve their goals.

These findings suggest that if we think about past goals we have accomplished even if at the time they were hard for us (positive past perspective) and then think about how we are going to make time to achieve our current goals (positive future perspective) we are more likely to believe that we can accomplish our goals. Here’s an example:

Let’s say I have a goal of wanting to become more healthy. If I use the ‘positive past’ I would think about how I managed to ace my psychology degree at university, even though in high school I was failing — I’m thinking of a past goal I accomplished that was hard for me. I can then shift to a ‘projective positive future’ time frame. I know that I’m going to be busy with my day job and writing on the side so, I can make time to become more healthy by creating a schedule of the time of day I will complete my exercise and prepping healthy meals so I have healthy food cooked already.

I’m boosting my self-efficacy because I’m now thinking that I’ve achieved very difficult goals in the past and I have a strategy in place to achieve the current goal. My belief in my ability will naturally increase.

“Time perspective is one of the most powerful influences on all of human behaviour. “— Philip Zimbardo

How to implement this:

1. Get into the positive past time frame: As with the previous strategy, thinking about your accomplished goals will get you into this perspective. Try to think about past goals that are similar to what your current goals are as this can help even more.
2. Now shift to a future perspective: Think of how busy you are now and that in the future you’re going to be just as busy. Now, write down how you plan to make time to achieve your goal. Think of creative or innovative ways to make sure you can accomplish your goals.

Be Mindful of Your Perceptions and Emotions

“It is not the sheer intensity of emotional and physical reactions that is important but rather how they are perceived and interpreted. People who have a high sense of efficacy are likely to view their state of affective arousal as an energizing facilitator of performance, whereas those who are beset by self-doubts regard their arousal as a debilitator,” says Bandura.

Psychologists and research have indicated, for years, that it is our interpretations that affect our mindset and behaviors greatly. If we are mindful of our perceptions and emotions, we can change our interpretation of them to use them to our advantage or be able to manage them better.

Studies have found that emotionally intelligent individuals, which involves being more aware of our emotions and being able to adapt and express appropriate emotions have a higher self-efficacy. For example, the goal of becoming more healthy, in itself, can create stress and anxiety. But, being aware of a negative thought such as, “I’ve failed in the past with this, I’ll fail again,” we can reframe or manage this thought to “Even though I have failed in the past, I have learned from it and have developed better strategies to help me succeed.” We can even manage this thought by saying a few positive affirmations too.

How to implement this:

1. Make time to examine your thoughts and feelings: Spend some time each day to think about what you’re saying to yourself and how you feel. Write this down. Are you saying to yourself “I can’t deal with this stress” and how do you feel? Upset, angry, annoyed?
2. Develop alternative statements: Create more positive beliefs/thoughts. If a thought of “I can’t deal with this stress” comes to mind, you may say to yourself “Here’s that negative thought again! Although this stress I am experiencing is tough, this is just temporary and I have overcome it before.”
3. List management strategies: Everyone will have different things that they do to manage their feelings. Does exercise help? Do you find reading aids with relaxation? Make a note so you have a ‘go-to’ list when these negative thoughts come to mind or if your feeling low.

By learning how to be aware of and manage our thoughts and feelings, we can improve our sense of self-efficacy.

Final Thoughts

Accomplishing our goals starts with enhancing our self-efficacy. If we have strategies in place to achieve our goals but we have doubt in our ability, the chances of accomplishing our goals diminish.

On the other hand, if we have great belief in our skills, behaviors, and ability to achieve our goals, we can boost our chances of achieving them massively because our intentions, behaviors, and mindset are all geared to trying our best to accomplish our goals.

Luckily for us, we can develop and increase our self-efficacy. By implementing these three strategies, we can greatly increase our self-efficacy:

1. Remind ourselves of when we have achieved goals in the past.
2. Use both the past positive and future time frame to boost our belief.
3. Increase awareness of our thoughts and feelings to help reframe and manage them.

In the great words of Mahatma Gandhi:

“If I have the belief that I can do it, I shall surely acquire the capacity to do it even if I may not have it at the beginning.”

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