Self-Efficacy

How To Boost Self-Efficacy

First of all, what is self-efficacy? Well, I’m glad you asked. Self-efficacy is defined as “an individual’s belief in their innate ability to accomplish goals.“ Okay, now that we’ve defined the word, why does it matter? Another good question - essentially, our self-efficacy helps us to determine what goals we set for ourselves, and how we go about accomplishing them. In other words, when we feel confident that we might be able to achieve a goal, we’re more likely to go after it.

In turn, if we don’t believe we can accomplish a goal, and therefore have little confidence in our abilities, we feel concerned, worried, insecure, or shameful. We don’t allow ourselves to work toward something we might want for ourselves, because we fear that failure is inevitable. So, if we have low self-efficacy, it can negatively affect our choice of activities, our level of effort, and our persistence. This can affect how we socialize with others, it can affect our ability to progress and grow, and it can affect the way we judge our own character.

So… where do our sources of self-efficacy come from?

Our past experiences can either be positive or negative. When talking about increasing our self-efficacy on something, we want to focus on those positive past experiences. If we’ve been able deadlift “X” amount of lbs before, we know it’s possible, and therefore we have evidence to suggest that we might be able to deadlift that same weight again. If we are attempting to hit a goal that we have no prior experience around, then consider whether you might have experience with a similar task (i.e. maybe we’ve never deadlifted that heavy before but we have moved heavy furniture, or we’ve done other exercises with heavy weight before).

Vicarious experiences can also increase our sense of self-efficacy. If Aunt Sally or our co-worker, Bob, have each successfully gotten promoted at work, we feel that we might be able to get that promotion that we want at work too. Now this might seem kind of odd - what does their ability to climb the ladder have anything to do with ours? Well, when they went through the process, we were able to watch/listen/learn. We unconsciously, or consciously, picked up some tips and tricks around what to say and do in order to get what we want. In addition, just watching them get more responsibility and a bigger paycheck makes us believe that if it’s possible for them, it’s possible for us too.

Verbal Persuasion can be a helpful tool as well, and can either come from within (self-talk) or from others (encouragement). Think about the last time someone you love and respect praised or complimented you. My guess is your response wasn’t one of discouragement or defeat. You likely felt invigorated, motivated, confident, or proud! Being able to repeat that praise or compliment to ourselves can have the same effect. If we think it and believe it, we’re more likely to achieve it.

Emotional Arousal is the final source of our self-efficacy. If we’re too panicked about giving a big work presentation in front of the whole company, we might freeze, or vomit, or both. If we’re not nervous enough, we might under-prepare. Being aware of how much effort you might need or want to put into preparing for this presentation is vital. If you know that public speaking isn’t a strong suit of yours, you might try some deep breathing or meditation beforehand to put yourself at ease. Doing so can help you take control of your nerves, which increases your sense of confidence in taking care of yourself, as well as taking care of the task at hand.

What connects these four sources is awareness, evidence, and familiarity. In other words, hoping to achieve a goal without preparation, training, or experience isn’t self-efficacy, it’s blind faith. We have to rely on what we know to be our strengths in order to provide us with sufficient evidence that we do have the ability to achieve a goal, no matter what that goal is.