You can choose to be confident. You came into the world confident – you didn’t question whether you could do something, you just did it.
Learning how to walk, you fell and you stood back up and tried and tried again until you mastered it. Eating with a fork, you poked yourself in the face or in the nose but eventually, you mastered the art of feeding yourself with a fork.
You didn’t question it or tell yourself that you will never master being able to walk or feed yourself.
This is confidence.
Practicing until you can make it happen.
But over time, however, you received messages that questioned your ability to be confident. This was influenced by the people who raised you, peer pressure in school and society as well as peer pressure in adulthood.
Your parents told you that you need you needed better friends because the friends you had were never good enough (for them) but trust me they were amazingly good enough for you right at that moment.
Friends made you choose because you wanted to fit it because standing out was out of the question.
Society and school told you to follow the rules, to fit in because that is how you become successful at life.
But let’s be honest here for a second.
Wouldn’t it feel amazing to just be you no matter how quirky, nerdy or introverted you are?
When you are attempting to go after your dream, you remind yourself of all the things you have learned about being confident. All those messages and stories from parents, peers, schools, and society come into the forefront reminding you that you are not confident and you shouldn’t even bother.
Screw that mess! You can unlearn those messages and relearn to be confident.
So how can you feel more confident right now?
- Know that you have the resources within you.
- Review all that you already have achieved. Take an assessment of your successes and skills.
- Know that you alone are enough.
- Let go of the stories you’ve told yourself since your confidence was shaken up.
- Be okay with not knowing. (Psst… you can learn anything you want to learn.)
- Know what confidence means to you. Define it.
- Decide you will be confident.
- Act no matter what!
The only one that is stopping you, is yourself!
