The final pillar of building authentic confidence is excellence. Excellence naturally leads to increased confidence in all areas of your life because it has an uplifting effect on your mind. It feels good to be good at something, and this spills over into other things.

Knowing that you’re excellent at something gives your brain one of those dopamine boosts it craves. It also makes you more likely to be called on to do difficult projects in your area of expertise. Other people’s confidence in you to ask you for such work will in turn build your own confidence even more.

Excellence doesn’t come easily, and it doesn’t arrive overnight. You have to work for excellence, practicing whatever you’re trying to master time after time for years on end. Only by doing that can you achieve excellence and mastery.

That doesn’t mean you have to wait that long to experience the confidence boost brought about by excellence, however. You will start to experience the effects on your confidence as you work towards excellence. Striving to get better, working to learn more of your craft, and practicing your work will all build your confidence.

You will feel more and more confident as you get better over time. The very act of striving for excellence helps you feel more confident. Why would you work so hard to achieve mastery if you didn’t think you could reach it?

Nor do you have to limit your attempts at excellence to one area of your life. Many people excel at multiple things. Sometimes they’re related, such as an athlete who is good at multiple sports, and sometimes they don’t have anything to do with one another. A talented engineer might also be an expert angler, for example.

If you want to build this pillar as strong as it can possibly be, you’ll want to strive for excellence in all areas of your life. Work towards mastering every skill you use regularly, both at work and in your personal life.

Try to do a task just a little bit better every time you repeat it and the effects on both your skill and your confidence will be astonishing.

Excellence isn’t something that’s given. It’s something that can only be earned. Earning it is a process that increases your confidence. Perhaps it’s tempting to focus on the other pillars, but don’t neglect this one if you want to build long-lasting confidence!