Self-efficacy and the Little Engine that Could
The NYC Growth Coaching Series — Part II
Today we will talk about self-efficacy. Self-efficacy is one’s belief that they can accomplish a goal. Just to make distinction, it’s not about one’s talent, drive, or self-confidence. It’s not about what one will do but about what one can do. It’s like when the Little Engine in the story says: “I think I can, I think I can, I think I can”. That “I think I can” is the quintessential description of self-efficacy.
Why is self-efficacy more important than talent or drive? Because while one’s talents contribute to the learning and accomplishment curve, they do not determine the result. Talented people give up when they lose faith that they can accomplish a goal. Drive disappears when one doesn’t see a potential. Self-efficacy is the limit to your imagination, the force that would enable you to try new things, and the limit to how much effort you will put in in overcoming obstacles. Self-efficacy is the outer bound of your goals, perseverance, and resilience. When you believe you can accomplish something, you will keep trying and exploring. When you lack self-efficacy, you feel helpless or limited in that domain and when you hit a glitch, you will likely stop trying and give up. This would be a rational thing to do, considering your own belief on your limitation.
When I visited Van Gogh’s museum in Amsterdam, one of the things struck me the most was that Van Gogh started to paint when he was 27. All of his paintings were created in 10 years, before he died at 37. Most of his famous paintings were created in the last 2 years of his life. Yes, that’s all the studies of irises and sunflowers that we consider part of the world heritage were done in just 2 years. In his painting, Van Gogh invented a new language and method of visual communication. No doubt it was not easy, it was likely was frustrating and sometimes he felt helpless. But he kept painting. In the last 2 years of his life, he painted nearly 1000 works. He explored many methods of painting, and with every work he got closer and closer to the aliveness and brilliance that we treasure about his art. Why? Because he believed that he had it in him. He had a sense of self-efficacy even though he was tormented by many demons.
Self-efficacy growth is an important piece of developing discipline and healthy behavioral habits, including exercise, diet, and smoking/addiction cessation. It is also important in creating healthy work and relationship habits.
Pause and Reflect: Is your perfectionism impacting your self-efficacy? Studies show that perfectionism contributes massively to low self-efficacy. In order to believe that one can accomplish a task, one ought to have realistic expectation of what a successful outcome looks like, and also be able to appreciate progress. Perfectionism contributes to unattainable goals and a very uncompromising position when it comes to assessing “good enough” progress.
Finally, when one has high sense self-efficacy they focus on what’s “wrong” with the obstacle, looking on ways to resolve it. Low self-efficacy makes us focus on what’s “wrong” with us, internalizing the problem and making us feel deficient.
Try it out: Want to grow your sense of a sense of self-efficacy? Try this short exercise: Remind yourself of a challenging situation where you felt stuck initially but made a breakthrough when you started saying” I think I can”, instead of “I won’t be able to”. Could you start the “I think I can” engine earlier to get unstuck faster in future challenges?
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