In the end, it’s really boils down to confidence, which comes from within but is influenced by our external world.
Try, for a moment, to smile internally without moving your lips. Smile using your mind. How do you feel now?
(I learned this from the Waking Up Meditation App)
Do you all of a sudden feel happy or cheerful and all the other things you might feel when something makes you smile?
Confidence gives us the ability to look past fears holding us back, setbacks holding us down, even uncertainties and give you the power to speak and to act.
Confidence relies on ability — if you’re not very good at what you do, then you feel less confident in your skills and therefore ARE less confident and will act (or not act) within an unconfident state of mind.
But if you’re confident and can back it up (either with skill or progress towards skill) things come more easy. Things can be just as hard, but you’re confidence diminishes the hard edges (which can bite you when you are too confident).
That’s why a little naivety is great in the beginning when you’re doing or learning something new — you don’t know what you don’t know and your lack of knowing gives you the freedom to act without too much fear, because, well, you don’t know any better.
The hardest part is to get more confidence, you have to have confidence, and to have a little confidence you have to be a little confident. Easy, right?
Start with something new, or something you are good at. Use that external confidence in ability or growth as a momentum booster to try new things and transfer your confidence to other areas.
STAY BOLD, Keep Pursuing,
— Josh W.
