The Self-Confidence Toolbox

I get a kick out of people that lump other people (or themselves) into one bucket or the other: low-self confidence or healthy self-confidence.

Why?

As many studies have shown (and as we can easily understand if we think back over our own lives), self-confidence is a very dynamic concept.  We may be self confident when dealing with people we know, but have little or no confidence when dealing with strangers.

We may have had low self-esteem and lacked self confidence in our teen years, but then found an inner confidence in our twenties only to struggle again in our 30’s perhaps as a result of a poor job choice or career change.

The fact is that there are situations and times in our lives when we all struggle with self confidence and so we can’t really look at it as a one-time “got-it-or-not” mentality.

Rather, we should view self-confidence more in terms of constant navigation…just as you must constantly adjust the path of a ship or airplane, so must you keep a close watch on staying confident through your life.

Inside the self confidence toolbox would be the following:

1. Purpose Larger Than You...a common catalyst for finding inner strength and confidence is placing your focus on something bigger, something outside of yourself..helping other people, building a large business, reaching a charity fund-raising goal, achieving a desired sporting or academic goal, etc…  These things drive you past your comfort zone and keep you growing which feeds self confidence

2. Meditation…the most important aspect to meditation in my experience is no just relaxation, but rather a mechanism that helps you put feelings of low self-esteem, fear, anxiety, frustration, etc…into perspective preventing them from taking over your life.  Fear, anxiety and uncertainty attack self-confidence, the more you can keep them in check the better

3. Constant Forward Motion…shouldn’t have to say a lot about this, we all know that if we can continue to take action and make progress that our self confidence is in better shape than if we procrastinate, beat ourselves up for not making progress, get stuck in a rut…which all lead to lower self esteem and confidence

4. Re-Direct The Focus…we tend to feed our anxieties, stresses and lack of self confidence by visualizing ourselves as the center of the universe.  With that kind of pressure it is no wonder that we get scared and doubt ourselves.  Re-directing some of that focus onto others around you helps to take the pressure off allowing your self confidence to shine through.

Inside Attracting Greatness the concept of the “5 Pillars of Greatness” are told…achieving an ongoing, healthy state of self confidence is one of those pillars, you will find additional techniques and examples of growing and keeping healthy self confidence in your life.  These exercises have changed peoples lives completely for as we all know if you are self confident that confidence spreads and influences those around you creating massive opportunities where resistance may exist today.