Success is the third pillar of the four pillars you need to build to create permanent and authentic confidence. This one may seem obvious. Of course, more successful people are more confident. How could they not be?

It is absolutely true that success builds confidence. Succeeding at something, reaching a goal, making it to someplace you want to be, or attaining a milestone, are all things that naturally build confidence.

When you succeed at something, your brain gets a signal: I did this. I succeeded. I got what I wanted. This was amazing. I can do other things that are amazing too!

This results in a boost in your confidence. It’s a permanent boost, too; this isn’t a temporary boost like that which results from a show of bravado or dressing up for a job interview.

If you have enough successes over a long period of time, the result will be a much higher baseline level of confidence than that of someone who doesn’t have a long track record of success.

All of this is common knowledge. Success = confidence. What’s not so commonly known is that you don’t have to have large successes in order to build your confidence. Huge, world-altering successes such as getting your dream job or buying a house are great for building your confidence, but they just don’t happen that often.

It’s the smaller successes that create long-term confidence. Paying your bills on time, trying a new food, asking someone out, getting a good grade on a test -these might not come with as large a release of dopamine as the larger successes, but they count.

Some might say they count more than the larger successes, because there are more of them, and they happen more often. Each time you succeed at something, your confidence climbs a little bit more. This can pave the way for you to take on and succeed at reaching larger goals like getting the dream job.

As with the other pillars, you can also increase the rate at which this one is built. How? By challenging yourself. Set goals you can reach. Work to reach them. When you do, you’ll increase your confidence. Then set more goals.

Doing this over and over will result in higher confidence levels even if it happens in a short period of time. You don’t have to wait years to build your confidence; you can make it happen starting today!