Build Resilience: 7 Tips for Growing More Confident
As writers, life presents us with unique challenges, and our capacity to tackle these trials successfully often lies in our ability to stay confident and resilient. Understanding these two powerful tools and harnessing them can be the key to maintaining your mental and emotional well-being as a new author.
“Persistence and resilience only come from having been given the chance to work through difficult problems.” ― Gever Tulley
This article aims to guide you on the journey to build resilience and more self-confidence as a new author. We provide useful tips and techniques to manage emotions, enhance your communication skills, and identify your writing strengths. Let’s dive in and help you get started unleashing your inner strengths.
What Is Resilience & Why Is It Beneficial?
The American Psychological Associate defines resilience as the process of adapting well in the face of adversity, trauma, tragedy, threats, or significant sources of stress. Resilience involves “bouncing back” from difficult experiences and can also involve profound personal growth. Being resilient doesn’t mean you won’t experience difficulty or distress. The road to building resilience is likely to involve considerable emotional distress for new authors.
Resilience has many benefits, including improved social connections and better performance under pressure. The good news: resilience is a skill that can be learned and improved upon every day.
Confidence is another crucial trait for writers. It’s closely intertwined with resilience. Your belief in your abilities to face challenges and accomplish tasks successfully. Confident writers believe in their strengths and capabilities, fostering a more positive outlook towards their writing career.
The interplay between confidence and resilience is critical to your professional growth as a new author. Being confident empowers you to take on challenges and learn from failures, enhancing your resilience. Similarly, the experience of overcoming obstacles in your writing career boosts your self-confidence.
Build Resilience through Realistic Planning
Being able to make realistic writing plans and carrying out those plans is a significant factor in building confidence and resilience. Creating achievable writing goals and designing a roadmap towards those goals gives a sense of control over life, which fosters confidence. This requires good problem-solving skills to break down complex problems into manageable tasks, identify potential solutions, evaluate their merits, and decide on the most effective course of action.
On the other hand, carrying out your plans implies that you have the necessary resources and support to follow through on your commitments. Successfully executing your plans strengthens problem-solving abilities, further solidifying your belief in your capabilities and promoting resilience. You can develop the skills you need as you grow.
Manage Emotions & Impulses
Your ability to manage feelings and impulses healthily significantly contributes to resilience and confidence. By regulating your behavior in line with our values and writing goals, you can feel more in control and confident. Here are a few strategies for managing emotions and impulses.
- Mindfulness: Staying present and attentive to your thoughts and feelings, devoid of judgment, allows you to respond more thoughtfully to your emotions and impulses. For more on this technique and writing, see Unlock Your Writing Potential: 5 Transformative Techniques.
- Deep Breathing: A simple yet effective technique for stress management, deep breathing triggers the body’s relaxation response, helping to stay calm and composed.
- Cognitive Reframing: Changing how we perceive a situation alters our feelings towards it. This involves challenging negative thoughts and replacing them with more positive or realistic ones.
Enhance Confidence Through Good Communication Skills
Obviously, writers know that good communication skills are crucial for expressing your thoughts and feelings effectively. But it applies to more than your writing. It helps build strong relationships. Being able to communicate effectively helps you advocate for your needs and foster a strong writing support system. In difficult times, reaching out to other authors can make you feel less isolated and more resilient.
Identify Strengths & Build Confidence
Having confidence in your strengths and abilities is a stepping stone towards resilience. To build this confidence, try the following tips.
- Identify Your Strengths: Reflect on your past experiences and feedback from others. Consider using online assessments for a comprehensive understanding.
- Practice Self-Compassion: Be kind to yourself, acknowledging that making mistakes is part of the learning process. As Cherrlyn Eller writes in Renewed: A Daybook for Finding You Again, “Learn to become your own best friend, rather than your worst enemy.”
- Challenge Negative Self-Talk: Pay attention to your inner dialogue, replacing negative thoughts with positive or realistic ones. Talk to yourself as if you’re your own best friend. Be encouraging and reassuring.
- Take on Challenges: Embrace new experiences and writing challenges. See them for what they are: opportunities to learn and grow.
Build Strong Relationships for Resilience
Strong relationships offer a support system that guides and accepts us in times of joy and struggle. According to “The Secret to Building Resilience,” in the Harvard Business Review, you can nurture and build resilience through a wide variety of interactions with others. The interactions can help you shift the magnitude of a challenge you’re facing, clarify the purpose, or help you see a path to overcome any setbacks.
Nurturing such relationships gives a sense of belonging while boosting your confidence and resilience. Invest time and energy in your relationships, communicating openly and honestly, and offering support when needed.
Learn More About Resilience
Take time to learn more about resilience. Consider the numerous books, blogs, and YouTube channels on the subject. Attend online or in-person conferences, workshops, or seminars. Interactive events are a great way to learn from experts. Various resources offer insights into the latest research and theories on resilience.
Plus, apply the same learning strategies to discover more about areas of writing you need to develop, so you can increase your self-confidence. For more help with this, see Overcoming Writing Weaknesses: 4 Steps for New Authors.
When I decided to self-publish my first book, I faced a lot of challenges and self-doubts. I felt my writing was not good enough, and I had no audience. I began to think I was wasting my time. Although I felt discouraged and doubted myself, I also had a passion for my book, and I believed in my vision. I kept going and learned from my mistakes. I improved my craft, marketed my book, and connected with other authors.
Eventually, I found readers. When I made my first sale, it was the most rewarding feeling in the world. I learned that resilience is not about giving up when you’re discouraged and filled with doubt. It’s about persevering and growing through the experience.
Conclusion
Resilience and confidence are indispensable traits, as they equip us to navigate writing challenges successfully. Building these characteristics requires realistic planning, effective emotion management, good communication skills, and strong relationships. By practicing these resilience-boosting skills every day, you can become better at dealing with stressors related to your author career. With consistent effort, you can harness the power of resilience and confidence to improve your writing career and your overall well-being.
As your next step, why not start by identifying your writing? Also, try practicing a new resilience-building technique. Embrace the journey of personal growth and empowerment as a new author.
Don’t wait. Start today!
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