Don't Wimp Out!

Confidence is a topic which has been done till death. Almost everyone must've come across some kind of formulaic article which teaches you how to raise your self confidence and the like.

The truth of the matter is that a high level of confidence is not something that can be instilled into a person just by reading a few lines. 

It has to be drilled through actions and practice. It's not a fad, it's a lifestyle.

It all starts with correcting the simple bad habits you've accumulated over your lifetime. I readied a lot of stuff which I wanted to say here, but then I came across a mesmerizing article which not only had most of what I wanted to say, but then some. 

So, courtesy that article (Credits at the end), here are some things which you need to do get into the confident lifestyle;

Confront life’s issues at the root before the disease can spread any farther. Problems left unaddressed have a way of multiplying as the days, weeks and months go by. Have an uncomfortable conversation with your partner today instead of sweeping an inconvenient truth under the rug, putting trust at risk.

Take ownership of your thoughts and actions. Don’t blame the traffic for being tardy at work; Accept that you were late. Don’t excuse your short-comings with excuses like “I don’t have the time” or “I’m just not good enough”; Make the time and they keep on improving until you are good enough.

Don’t let fear dominate your lives. Things you are afraid of doing are often the very same things that you need to do in order to evolve into the person you are meant to be.

Don’t get caught up in negative feedback. While you should care about the well-being of others and aim to make a positive impact in the world,  don’t get caught up in negative opinions that you can’t do anything about. Know that you true friends will accept you as you are.

Keep no tolerance for unnecessary, self-inflicted drama. Don’t feel the need to insult friends behind their backs, participate in gossip about fellow co-workers or lash out at folks with different opinions. Be comfortable in who you are that you feel no need to look down on other people.

Know that you should not be competing with any other person. Compete with no other individual except the person you were yesterday. Every person is living a story so unique that drawing comparisons would be an absurd and simplistic exercise in futility.

Keep no interest in pleasing every person they meet. Not all people get along, and that’s just how life works. Focus on the quality of their relationships, instead of the quantity of them.

Make use of whatever resources you have, no matter how big or small. All things are possible with creativity and a refusal to quit. Don’t agonize over setbacks, but rather focus on finding a solution.

Highly confident people take action without

hesitation. Every day, they remind themselves,

“If not me, who?”

Don’t limit yourself to Plan A. Make use of any and all weapons that are at your disposal, relentlessly testing the effectiveness of every approach, until you identify the strategies that offer the most results for the least cost in time and effort.

And for a good end to this article:

Don’t accept articles on the Internet as truth just because some author “said so”. Look at every how-to article from the lens of their unique perspective. 

Maintain a healthy skepticism, making use of any material that is relevant to your life, and forget about the rest. While articles like these are a fun and an interesting thought-exercise, highly confident people know that they are the only person with the power to decide what “confidence” means.

Signing Off,
Shawn Kenneth Fernandes

P.S: Inspiration and credits to "15 Things Highly Confident People Don't Do.", Lifehacker.org.