There is a commonly held -- but false -- belief that it takes many years of struggling and hard work to build confidence. In reality, nothing could be further from the truth. Confidence is not something one gains by "working at it," or studying their behavior and mannerisms over many years. Confidence is the product of the subconscious mind, and can be improved in the blink of an eye -- assuming you use the right techniques.

The problem is, many people assume that confidence comes from simply working harder at being confident. This would make sense if your level of confidence and self-esteem was determined by your conscious mind -- but it's not.

To build confidence, your subconscious mind must undergo a change. It matters very little what you consciously say, think or believe about yourself, because it is the all-important subconscious mind that defines the self image and establishes a person's level of confidence and self-esteem.

So how do you affect this change in the subconscious? Research shows that repetition is one powerful tool to change subconscious assumptions. Think of it this way: when you were first learning to drive a car, you thought about every aspect of driving consciously at all times. At this point, chances are you were not a great driver because you were "over-thinking" things.

But through repetition and practice, you likely got to the point where you did not have to think very much about driving -- it was simply something you did. Once a driver gets to this level, the subconscious mind has taken over and they become very smooth, effortless drivers -- without thinking much about it.

Building confidence works exactly the same way. If you have to give a great deal of conscious thought to your behavior and mannerisms, you will likely not appear very confident to anyone, especially yourself. But through repetition of the right messages, you can reach the point where you are "running on autopilot," just as you do when you drive a car. This is the point where confidence and high self-esteem come naturally to a person, and they seldom have to give it a second thought.

We learn any task or behavior by repetition, and "extreme repetition" will speed up the process immensely. This is how you learned to speak as a child. You were surrounded by people speaking your language, and this extreme repetition bombarded your subconscious mind until it was inevitable that you could speak the language too.

This is also why the best way to learn a new language which is to live in a country where it is spoken. Being surrounded by, and bombarded with, a concept over a period of time ensures that it absolutely will become a part of your nature and personal characteristics. This is exactly how we build confidence. Immersing yourself with confident ideas, suggestions and messages using extreme repetition builds confidence quickly, without years of struggling or "hard work."

Although there are many confidence building programs out there, as a personal development and confidence coach, I always advise clients to steer clear of programs that claim to be able to "teach" self-confidence over a period of time. Self-confidence is not something we "learn." It is something that we mimic, just like language. That's why struggling or working hard for years to build confidence often fails.

The proper way to create a subconscious shift in how you "see" yourself is to use a total immersion program with "extreme repetition." Programs such as the UltraConfidence System use this type of technique to overwhelm the subconscious mind and create a new confident self-image.

Remember, what you consciously think, say or believe doesn't make a whole lot of difference. And you don't need years and years of training to be a confident person. You can bypass all those false assumptions and build confidence without struggling by immersing yourself in a program that uses extreme repetition of concepts and suggestions to create a new "reality" of a new, more confident you.