Want to boost someone’s confidence? Ask for their advice
Parent Post
Self-efficacy is a person’s
Self-efficacy is a person’s confidence in their ability to control their own behavior, motivation, and social circumstances.
Goal strivers are plagued by insecurity.
A lack of self-efficacy can prevent us from setting goals in the first place.
“Saying-is-believing effect.”If asked for
“Saying-is-believing effect.”
If asked for dieting suggestions, a vegan will likely offer plant-based tips. So, when someone asks for guidance, we tell them what we would find useful.
After offering our advice, we feel hypocritical if we don’t try it ourselves. In psychology, it is called the “saying-is-believing effect.” After you say something to someone else, you’re more likely to believe in yourself.
How to help yourself
How to help yourself succeed when it depends on something out of your control — namely, other people?
It is possible to harness the power of advice-giving to help yourself. One way is by forming an advice club: a group of people whose members regularly consult one another for help.
You might consider forming an advice club with friends who are struggling to achieve goals similar to your own.
As you provide and receive solicited advice, you’ll boost one another’s confidence and unearth ideas that help with your own problems.
If giving advice can
If giving advice can destroy confidence, then asking people who are struggling to be advisers instead of advisees might be a better approach.
People are quick to infer implicit messages in the actions of others. In giving advice, we might be inadvertently conveying to people that we don’t think they can succeed on their own.
Encouraging someone to share their wisdom conveys they’re intelligent, capable of helping others, and the kind of person who succeeds. It shows we believe in them.
Being asked to give
Being asked to give advice conveys to people that more is expected of them, boosting their confidence.
Surveys have proved that people are capable of producing useful insights about how to tackle the same goals they themselves struggled with.
This is a key reason why giving advice to others tends to help us.