con-fi-dence: belief in oneself and one’s powers or abilities
Grade 9 was not a confident year for me…
It was my first year at a new high school where it seemed like everyone knew everyone else because I didn’t come from one of the typical feeder schools and because I skipped Grade 7 and thus didn’t have as many friends from my old elementary school.
And being 1 of about 5 Chinese kids in a school of 1,000+ didn’t help, either, because, you know, kids can be idiots (and they were).
Grade 10 got better, because I made some new friends but I remember one day, I was walking beside a mirror and I caught a glimpse of myself and noticed how bad my posture was.
My shoulders were slouched forward, my head was down as if I was looking at my feet and I just looked weak.
I didn’t like what I saw, but just kept walking…
Later that year, my brother introduced me to weight training.
I was playing competitive hockey and needed to get bigger and stronger, as I was getting thrown around on the ice.
So, my brother Ty gave me a bench press and barbell set for Christmas and helped me start training.
I didn’t know much but jumped into it with enthusiasm.
My workout consisted of Bench Press, Bicep Curls and Skull Crushers (lol) and I performed this workout 3 days a week.
As most beginners to weight training, I quickly put on some size and gained strength and it was even noticed by a couple of girls at school.
This felt awesome.
But the biggest benefit I got was the boost in confidence I got, which wasn’t necessarily from the increased attention, but more from the fact that I committed to something, saw it through, then experienced results.
This is where TRUE confidence comes from.
Sure, you can repeat affirmations and say “I’m confident! I’m confident!” all day, but if you don’t actually do anything to better yourself, you’re simply lying to yourself.
Confidence comes from capability and capability comes from learning + application.
This is the PROCESS to confidence.
Once you have the capability, then it’s time to add things like affirmations, visualization and mental tricks (which we’ll discuss in a future article), otherwise they have nothing behind them and your unconscious will know you’re full of it.
So if you want to be confident, develop new capabilities.
The best part is that it doesn’t matter what area of life they’re in, whether it’s fitness, business or love.
Because by experiencing this PROCESS at work, you’ll discover that it applies to anything you want, which instantly boost your confidence.
Did reading this boost your confidence?
I hope so, but if it didn’t, don’t worry, just pick some capability you want to gain, follow the process and you’ll get it. I know you will.
Eric
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