Self-Confidence: You Have to Make it a Practice

Have you decided to learn from past mistakes and not beat yourself up for being human?nnWe are going to make bad decisions and rather than dwell on them learn from them. Learn what not to do the next time that situation or a similar situation presents itself to you. Forgive yourself, just in case no one has told you lately, “you are not perfect”. nnThis is the third and final article in a three part series on self-confidence builders. The purpose of these articles is to help you build or increase your confidence. In them I will give you some pointers that you can apply immediately to help you in this area. nnDo not dwell on your past mistakes learn from them, how not to do it the next time. If you accomplish something do not be afraid to let someone know. Sometimes you have to talk yourself up. You have to learn how to encourage yourself rather than talk to others about your failure you should talk about your success. You would not talk about your success to the point that you could be labeled braggadocio; you are just casually mentioning it as your own confidence builder.nnLet us not get stuck in a rut try new things, take a different routine to work, (unless you are like me someone who work-from-home) change your hair, treat yourself some times. Do not wait for someone to do something special for you do it for yourself. Love on you. I have found if you love you; people treat you better. They realize you love yourself to much to be mistreated by someone else. Try new experiences, think outside the box. For example, who said you have to work Monday – Friday from 9 to 5 for 30 years. Then when you finally retire you are limited to a fixed income that is less than what you earned when you were working and it is still not enough to live off of. Why not start your own home-based business now while you are employed. Then, if something should happen to your job or you want to retire early you have something, as my mom would say, “to fall back on”. If nothing else it will be a new experience for you and the more new experiences you have in your life the more confident you will feel in unknown situations. Expand your knowledge base by trying something new. nnNever stop learning new things. We have a world wide library at our fingertips - the internet. We can put a topic in the search engine press “search” and we have access to pages of information for that topic. Turn the television off and pick up a book and read about different events, places, cultures, and people. Create time for reading and sharing with your family and friends. All these things help build your confidence, reading allows you to stay abreast of current events. Then, when you speak to the stranger in the elevator; you will have a current event to share or ask them what do they think about it. Always surround yourself with knowledgeable people; people who are smarter than you; folks who can show you something new and cutting edge. This also helps to build your confidence because you are learning things the average people do not know. Subsequently, you would be considered above average because of your intellect. How about that to boost your confidence and even your self-esteem?nnLike I mentioned in prior article practice, practice, and more practice being self-confident. Self-confidence is important and can be learned. However, it takes practice and a conscious effort from you. This time rather than practice in front of your mirror practice in small situations. Be the first to do something, i.e. the first to speak to a stranger and maintain eye contact, the first to extend your hand for a hand-shake, or the first to try something new or different with your business when it is not the popular thing to do. Former President Robert F. Kennedy said, “Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly”.nnAre you self-confident, yet? I certainly hope these articles helped you build or increase your confidence level. My intent of writing these articles was to share with you the necessary tools to solve your problems and negotiate stressful life challenges you will encounter. If you apply these methods you should not be as fearful when life (things) happen. Also you should be empowered to take control of the challenge and not allow the challenge take control you.