Author Topic: Self-confidence  (Read 1596 times)

Hermes

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Self-confidence
« on: January 17, 2008, 09:27:33 AM »


""Take responsibility for yourself. This is the first and most important ingredient in the self-confidence formula. You, and only you, can make new things happen in your life. If you wait for serendipity to provide you with good fortune, or with increased confidence, you’ll be waiting a long time. Realize that the path toward self-confidence is one that you will have to travel — no one else can do it for you.

Begin to experiment with life. Try something new. Go out to dinner alone. Take a class in an unfamiliar subject area. Teach yourself how to repair a toaster. Testing your abilities at new endeavors is a wonderful way to learn that you can rely on yourself.
Develop an action plan and implement it. Select one area for personal or professional development. Determine the action steps you will take to get there. Put these steps on a timeline. Now implement each step according to plan — no excuses. Every small step you take will be a great boost to your confidence!
Stick with it. When you take on a new challenge, stick with it. Self-confidence doesn’t come from each thing you attempt. If it did, one failed effort would bring you back to zero on the confidence scale. True confidence develops from an increasing belief that you can rely on yourself to take action and follow through, no matter what the result.
Act “as if.” If you put off taking action until you have confidence, you’ll never do it. In the field of psychology we have come to understand that by changing our behavior, we can change our feelings. So if you take action, and do so with a semblance of outward confidence, the inward, true feeling of confidence, will follow.
Find a mentor. Do you know someone who is confident and continues to take one new risk after another? Watch how they do this. Muster up the courage to ask them to meet you for coffee. Find out how they do what they do, and ask them for feedback about your action plan and implementation. Most confident people are happy to help. They remember the courage and effort it’s taken them to get where they are today.

Well, the truth is “out of the bag.” No more excuses. No more wistful sighs, as you think about that successful gymnast you met, or the woman you read about who returned to medical school in her 60s. Right here, right now, you have the formula to develop your own confidence. So head for the laboratory and start creating, adding one ingredient at a time."

http://psychcentral.com/lib/2006/the-self-confidence-formula-for-women/


lighter

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Re: Self-confidence
« Reply #1 on: January 17, 2008, 09:39:38 AM »
This absolutely resonated with me, Herme.

Thanks for sharing this with the board.

It makes sense to me.

Hermes

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Self-confidence
« Reply #2 on: January 17, 2008, 09:51:29 AM »
Hello Lighter:

Thanks for your reply.

I have a friend who does quite a lot of work in the volunteering sector.  She has an acronym I love:  BSE.
"Blame Someone Else".   She comes across this quite a lot in her work. 
It is a negative attitude, somewhat along the lines of: "the devil made me do it"......


We have responsibility for ourselves.  There is a saying I like: "The past is another country, and they do things differently there."
We can do nothing about the past, nothing, and not a lot about the future either LOL.  But, what we do and decide today certainly configures the "tomorrow".  Try manipulating the future and one is doomed to failure.

All the best
Hermes



lighter

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Re: Self-confidence
« Reply #3 on: January 17, 2008, 09:57:04 AM »
Thanks again.... and all the best to you.

axa

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Re: Self-confidence
« Reply #4 on: January 17, 2008, 09:59:37 AM »
Hermes,

I agree with you, it is up to ourselves to make our own happiness.  I am learning this more and more each day.  The difficulty I have is that I have trouble sticking to things.  I am full of enthusiasm and then I become depleted, as if I have very low reserves.  I have to keep reminding myself of the positive pay off when I do something which makes me feel good.  I know that I have been very beaten down in my life and mostly would have taken the stand "why bother, everything turns out the same anyway"  I know, in reality, this is not true but struggle with getting the new positive message into my stubborn harddrive!

AXa

Hermes

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Self-confidence
« Reply #5 on: January 17, 2008, 02:12:13 PM »
Dear Axa:

Do not be hard on yourself, or demand more of yourself than is necessary.  Sometimes things just happen and fall into place all right if we just stop trying.  It is odd, but it is so.

We can do anything we wish.  You will see.

Hugs
Hermes