How to Build Self-Trust
[00:00:00] You're listening to The Extraordinary Everyday Podcast with Wendy Johnson, episode number 52. Welcome to The Extraordinary Everyday Podcast, where women come to be inspired and motivated to become the best version of themselves and elevate the quality of their everyday. Now, here's your host, certified life coach, Wendy Johnson.
Hello, beautiful friends. How are you doing on this beautiful spring day? I'm looking forward to being with you today, and we're diving into the topic of building self-trust. What is self-trust? It's the cornerstone of personal development. It's about having confidence in your abilities, judgments, and decisions.
When you trust yourself, you're more resilient and adaptable and better equipped to handle life's [00:01:00] challenges. So how do we cultivate this invaluable trait of building self-trust? Let's find out. I'm going to give you five steps to building self-trust. And the first step is self-awareness. Take the time to understand your values, strengths, and weaknesses.
Take time to reflect on past experiences. And identify patterns and behaviors that either reinforce or undermine your self-trust. And there are ways of doing this that I've talked about. Journaling, meditation, or seeking support. They can all help you gain clarity. And that's what coaching is for. To have a well-lived life requires that you build self-trust.
And it's created through your [00:02:00] thoughts and actions. And it's required to create a healthy self-image. The first step is self-awareness. The second step is to practice self-compassion. And treat yourself with kindness and understanding. Especially in moments of failure or setbacks. We all make mistakes and we all fail.
If we're not, we're not growing ourselves. And they are opportunities for growth. They're not reasons to doubt yourself. The opposite of self-trust is self-doubt. By embracing self-compassion with yourself, you're nurturing a supportive inner voice that encourages rather than criticizes. Another crucial key component to building self-trust is setting [00:03:00] boundaries.
Learn to say no to commitments or situations that don't align with your values or priorities. Boundaries protect your time, energy, and emotional well-being. This reinforces your trust in yourself to prioritize what matters most. If you've been asked to do something, are you always saying yes to please other people?
And what you're saying yes to doesn't matter to you. You need to like your reason for saying yes. It's one thing to volunteer and to give your time, but if this is outside of what you truly believe in, then it's not a good place for you to be, and you need to learn to say no. Now let's talk about accountability.
Hold yourself accountable for [00:04:00] your actions and decisions. You want to set achievable goals, and you want to be able to follow through on them. That's the only way you're going to build trust in yourself. And to do that, you need to celebrate your wins. No matter how small, every day you're looking at those small wins, those commitments to yourself that you're keeping.
You're not breaking promises to yourself. And one way to do this is to not over-schedule yourself. When you over-schedule yourself, you let yourself off the hook. You're not focused and you don't have clarity on that one thing that you have to do that day. And if you do that thing, you can do a second or a third thing.
But you're zoning-in on that one thing so [00:05:00] that you can create a win and a small win would be doing a part of the goal. Let's say that I'm preparing my podcast for the week one small win would be writing my script, researching, and coming up with ideas for what I want to talk about. That would be one small win.
The next win would be recording the podcast. And the win after that would be editing my podcast. And the next win would be publishing the podcast. And then another win would be creating social media posts or writing a blog post. I'm breaking up my goal for the week into small components so that I can break them up into hours in the day [00:06:00] and create chunks of time for that goal.
It's a lot easier when you break things into small components and you're able to see and achieve those small wins. Lastly, you want to surround yourself with supportive people who uplift and encourage you. Cultivate relationships built on trust, honesty, and mutual respect. Seek feedback from trusted mentors or friends who have your best interests at heart.
These mentors or friends are not jealous of you. They're not comparing themselves to you. They're there rooting for you and supporting you along the way. And you're doing the same for them. When you get perspective from other people, they can offer you valuable [00:07:00] insights and validation. And this reinforces your self-trust.
And finally, embrace vulnerability. To build trust, we have to be vulnerable. Be willing to take risks and step outside your comfort zone. Embracing vulnerability, fosters resilience and authenticity, deepening your connection with yourself and your relationships with other people. Remember your true strength lies in owning your imperfections.
You're not hiding. You're putting yourself fully out there, imperfections and all be apologetically yourself. You're not hiding a part of yourself. You're telling the truth. Let me give you an example of a woman I worked with. She was passionate and creative. She loved art, [00:08:00] but she struggled to see herself as a legitimate artist.
Despite receiving praise from her friends and family, she doubted whether she had what it took to succeed in the competitive art world. She was not going to leave her job because she didn't trust herself. She didn't believe that she was good enough. And she was determined to overcome her insecurities.
And she hired me as her coach. She was committed to honing her craft sharing her creations with the world and learning how to become vulnerable. She started by participating in some small local art shows sharing her work on social media and presenting her work to her friends. Slowly, but steadily, she built a following.
With each painting she [00:09:00] completed, she began to see positive responses. And then her confidence grew. Eventually, she mustered up the courage to leave her day job and apply to big galleries and art festivals. With a new mindset and a new identity and working with a coach, she had work that was not only accepted but celebrated by other art enthusiasts and critics alike.
Through her journey of self-trust, she discovered that her art had the power to inspire and connect herself with others. Along with that, she built her confidence, her self-trust, and a strong backbone. She was stronger than she ever believed she could be. And it took baby steps, but she got there.
Now [00:10:00] let's recap how to build self trust. The first step is self-awareness. The second step is self-compassion. The third step is setting boundaries. The fourth step is accountability, and the fifth step is embracing vulnerability. To conclude, building self-trust is an ongoing journey that requires patience, self-awareness, and self-compassion.
When you prioritize your well-being, set boundaries, hold yourself accountable, and surround yourself with supportive relationships, you'll strengthen your trust in yourself and unlock your full potential. I hope that you enjoyed this episode today and that this will give you ideas on how to build self-trust in yourself.
I'm going to [00:11:00] talk deeper about this in the coming episodes, so stay tuned. I look forward to being with you next week. Take care, friends. Hey, if you enjoy listening to this podcast, you have to come check out More You, my community of like-minded women. We show up to create the highest version of ourselves and elevate the quality of our every day along the way.
Head over to ontraclifecoaching. com forward slash join. That's O N T R A C lifecoaching. Om forward slash join. I'd love to see you in there. And if you haven't grabbed your copy of the mindset makeover, head over to ontraclifecoaching.com forward slash makeover and get a copy that teaches and inspires you to show up as your most extraordinary self.
