Do you believe in yourself enough?
If I have lost confidence in myself, I have the universe against me. -Ralph Waldo Emerson
Self Confidence is defined as a belief in oneself. A belief in our own powers and abilities. It is not Peer Confidence, or Parent Confidence, or School Confidence or World Confidence or even Face Book Confidence it is SELF Confidence. It can only come from what we believe about ourselves.
So if it is SELF Confidence, when would now be a good time to accept the fact that whatever happened in the past, or whatever someone said about you, does not matter any more. Can you take 100% responsibility now for your own confidence level? Will You accept total responsibility for your level of self confidence? And When will you?
In order for your Self Confidence to increase, you simply have to believe in yourself more. Not anyone else… only you. So what would have to happen in order for you to take your belief in yourself from a level 6 (out of 10) to a level 6 1/2? How could you get it even higher? What would you have to do or think to take it to a level 7? Is that even possible for you?
I have been asking clients for years to rate their level of self confidence on a scale of 1- 10. (With 10 being supreme total confidence). Initially as I started to do this I was shocked at the confidence levels of many of the executives that I worked with. These were highly successful people in highly paid positions, yet they had lower levels of self confidence than I would have ever imagined.
Even if you have a high level of self confidence initially, when you are faced with challenges and adversity in the face of something that you are striving for, your confidence level can become shaken, and your performance can suffer. All of these executives were experiencing challenges that caused their performance to suffer and their confidence levels to drop. It doesn’t have to be that way.
We see it over and over again in elite athletics. For example When Apolo Ohno the most decorated US Winter Olympic medal winner of all time was asked why he didn’t perform better at the 2006 Olympic games, he replied,”I didn’t believe in myself enough.”
That refreshingly honest, brutal truth demonstrates the line between an Olympic Gold medal and nothing. Confidence is everything. It is magnified when the stakes are raised, and the competition is equal to ourselves. Talent does not get the job done, training does not get the job done. They all play a role in the preparation. But winning is primarily a matter of confidence.
In the recent Winter Olympic games in Vancouver, the women’s final for down hill skiing was performed in unusually warm weather that created lots of fog. So the conditions were difficult. What was most interesting to me was that all the former Olympic athlete broadcasters could talk about was how this weather thing was affecting the confidence of the skiers. The greatest skiers on the planet were questioning their own ability to win due to weather conditions, even though all competitors were faced with the exact same weather elements.
That day, the most confident skier won, not the best practiced or best technical skier…the most confident one was the winner because they were fearless about pushing the edge, and not worrying the fog, or about whether they were going to fall or not. Self doubt had eroded the confidence of countless great skiers.
The belief in yourself that you can succeed, and win the gold medal, or ask out the girl, or get the job, or earn lots of $$, or be a great Mom, or perform before 100,000 people or close the sale, is your competitive edge, it is the difference time after time. It is the most important key to success, and nothing great can be achieved without it.
I have seen what is possible from my personal belief in myself when everyone around me doubted and told me it would never happen. I have experienced so many amazing clients step up in their lives at levels that they initially questioned were ever possible for them. So I know that you also have that ability within you to believe and not doubt, and to make what you want happen. No matter what anyone else around you is saying. So even though I don’t know you personally yet… I believe in you!
Now, it’s time for you to believe in yourself, and have the confidence to create the future that you truly want. Nothing can stop you but you.