What difference will it make when you face the uncertainties of life with a certainty that you will prevail?
In many respects, the secret of life is confidence. This is no surprise. Life is filled with uncertainties. Aside from Ben Franklin’s observation about the inevitability of death and taxes, most everything else is up for grabs.
Try as we might to minimize or even avoid difficulties, lots of things happen in life that we wish didn’t happen. Some of them show up despite our careful plans to the contrary. Some show up totally unexpected, land in our laps, and demand immediate attention. And doesn’t this seem to happen on days when you had other things to do?
And some of these things are so unexpected and “off the wall” that we are quite unprepared for them. This is why the secret of life is confidence. With confidence, we can assume an air of certainty in the face of even the most vexing, unsettling, and unexpected “bolt from the blue.”
The most successful among us in any field are the ones that face uncertainty with confidence. In fact, the greater the success, the more that confidence is unshakeable. That’s why they the successful are so successful.
We all live in the same uncertain world and are subject to our share of missteps, misfortunes, reversals, and debacles. However, the most successful among us take these in stride and turn them to advantage by drawing on a store of confidence.
Here are three simple secrets to building confidence:
1. Remember times when you were confident.
2. Act as if you are confident.
3. Imagine your feeling resolve an unexpected matter with confidence.
We’ve all had times when we acted with confidence in the face of the unexpected. Perhaps for no apparent reason, you faced a challenge and dealt with it admirably. And you did this despite having no idea how you would resolve this issue when you got started.
Perhaps you were just swept up in the challenge. Perhaps we were just having a good day. Perhaps you just forgot to be anxious about the outcome.
Remind yourself of those occasions. Relive them and re-experience them in your mind’s eye. They are vitamins for confidence.
Another way to build confidence is to act with confidence. This is the essence of the oft repeated “Fake it ‘till you make it.”
This generates confidence because the body, expression, and tone of voice affect the mind. You can’t walk, talk, and act confident without feeling confident.
Another way to build confidence is to imagine a successful conclusion, turn it into a mental movie, and make yourself the star.
Imagine what you feel like after you’ve resolved some unexpected situation. Life has tested you and you have resolved the situation successfully. Imagine what this feels like as you look back and realize that you acquitted yourself well.
These simple techniques generate feelings of confidence. The real secret of confidence is to generate confident feelings whenever you need them. If the secret of life is confidence, these three techniques are the secrets of building confidence.
It won’t do anything about death and taxes. However, it will give you the fortitude to consider this observation from Will Rogers: “Both death and taxes are certain, but the difference is that death does not get worse every time Congress meets.”
© 2007 Tony Papajohn
Tony Papajohn coaches excellence and specializes in money. If you are a real estate investor, financial trader, entrepreneur, or want money to treat you like its new best friend, check out Tony’s free e-courses at http://www.WelcomeMoreMoney.com .
