You may be chipping away at your confidence without even knowing it!
This revelation came to me today whilst doing my workout and listening to an interview with the well-known speaker.
We are all born with a body full of Vitamin C – known as confidence. You may not remember this but as a baby you tried to do all sorts of things like crawling to get to the toy that caught your eye across the floor, or you attempted your first steps to follow your pet dog out of the room or to step into the outstretched arms of a loved one. Did we fall down? YES. Did we try again? YES. Did we fail numerous times without really feeling defeated? YES. None of this broke down our confidence in wanting to achieve those simple things in life.
We go through life experiencing so many ups and downs, successes and defeats, wins and losses, forward propulsion as well as emergency break situations. All of which shape our minds into believing what we are capable of doing. As a child, the sky is the limit, and we know no limitations. However, as adults we are very aware, oftentimes too conscious, of what could go wrong and what might happen that we do not move forward in life full of conviction and confidence toward our dreams.
The point I am trying to make here is that confidence is deep within all of us. As a child and through your teenage years, your confidence level was influenced by your peers, loved ones, environment and to a large extent school as well as teachers. These factors either built you up or knocked you down diminishing your confidence each time.
You may have carried these limiting beliefs into adulthood stemming from those experiences – both in a positive and negative sense. We have all met people who exude confidence and are willing to go after anything they want. But there are also people out there who avoid trying something new for fear of failure or not being good enough. Fear and limiting beliefs will hold you in place and govern your mind if you allow them to.
In order to create more confidence or ‘restore’ some Vitamin C back in your daily life, I want you to imagine the following:
Picture yourself as a larger-than-life, breathtaking statue made of exquisite marble standing on a pedestal. Your pose is one of self-assurance, confidence and courage beautifully presented in your most elegant robe. An impressive sight.
Confidence. If you have it, you can make anything look good.
Diane von Furstenberg
You are that woman. Now and forever.
But what I realized today…
Every time we “cheat” on ourselves, we chip away at this amazing sculpture. Every time we give in to the belief that we are not worthy, we chip away some more. Every time we believe the voice in our heads telling us we can’t do it, another small piece of marble falls to the ground.
You, I, we all have dreams and goals we would love to achieve. And, we all know that in order to move closer to the end goal, there are action steps involved. These steps make or break our progress, motivation and ultimately our success. But, how are these steps related to confidence?
I strongly believe that confidence is closely linked to trust in ourselves. We instill and restore the trust factor by following through on our action steps. Every little step taken towards our goal demonstrates to us that we are staying true to ourselves. It’s like a vote of confidence.
In other words, if you follow the plan and do the tasks required to move the needle forward in attaining your goal, you’re voting for yourself, your self-esteem and confidence. YOU WIN!
However, if you fall short of the intended actions that are necessary to make progress, for what reasons, you are voting for your comfort zone, possibly your limiting beliefs, your fear and ego trying to keep you in the “safe zone” of your mind. In this case, you not only lose but you take a hammer and chip away a chunk of marble representing your confidence.
Your confidence in yourself gets crushed bit by bit if you fail to follow through on the actions you set for yourself. Your trust in yourself crumbles away each and every time you quit on your goals, give up or fall short of the planned action, cheat on yourself, don’t follow through.
It’s not hurting anyone else when I don’t do the full workout I had planned on executing.
It’s not affecting anyone else when I indulge in the dessert, I had planned on skipping after dinner.
It’s not hurting anyone else when I watch TV instead of working on my business according to my plan.
It’s not affecting anyone else if I sit on the couch scrolling social media instead of getting outside in nature for a walk, which was one of my daily goals.
Your lack of follow through on your daily habits/actions only affects YOU, your confidence, your trust in yourself, maybe your health, but definitely your thoughts and beliefs about yourself.
This is the reason I close off the majority of my posts with…
Spark your inner hero and make yourself proud.
Confidence always lies within you but you need to find it inside you. Confidence is a self-made thing and you will find it with daily achievements.
You have to impress yourself, not others.
You have to look in the mirror and feel proud about what you’ve achieved.
You have to stay true to yourself – each and every day of your life.
So, take ownership of your daily actions, build your confidence by following through on your plan, be proud of every small step forward and feel great about yourself.
I am your biggest cheerleader and advocate. You’ve got this!
Til next time,
Lisa xo
