Self confidence can be situational. What I mean by that is that when you wake up in the morning and leave your home to go to school or work, you have enough self confidence to meet all of the challenges that you are consciously aware of. It is when you have to step out of your comfort zone that you begin to stretch your self confidence as well as your self esteem. You consciously or subconsciously ask yourself, do I have what it takes to successfully overcome this new experience? Your answer is either yes or no and then you decide whether you want to take the next step.
When you are self assured, even in unfamiliar circumstances, you take that next step and you take the risk. When your self assurance could be higher, depending on the circumstances, you may decide to not take the risk. Obviously, if is a question of a legal or moral issues, or life or death, the answer is a simple one.
How much self confidence do you need? How much self assurance do you need? The answer to question that is that you need enough to get you past the next new challenge.
All of us can use more self confidence depending on our next new situation. You get more by doing more and you do more by taking small steps. Yes, there are times when you take giant steps and your self confidence takes a giant leap. But most of the time, you take small steps as life pushes you just a little more.
You can either take small steps or giant ones. Take big risks or small ones. There is no right or wrong answer because only you can determine the steps you want to take. Sometimes you have seemingly adverse conditions that prevent you from doing what you desire. Your adverse condition may be external or internal. You may have a limitation imposed on you that prevents you from doing something or a personal limitation that you believe prevents you from achieving something. Remember that however difficult your life is, there is always someone who is worse off than you are and in most cases there is someone who has achieved wonders with the same limitation as you.
What follows is a story that someone shared with me today about John Lafferty who has physical limitations, yet he didn’t allow them to achieve what he want to. I edited very little and only for minor word spelling or typos. The story is intact.
“John Lafferty left school at 15, partially sited without any qualifications. At 20 he was blind and went on to teach English at a school in Motherwell. But unfortunately John was unfairly passed over a job promotion at his school, which he felt was because of his sight. He chose to turn his anger into action and studied Law at Leeds Polytechnic and be he became a lawyer. He worked as a Lawyer and he has recently been appointed as a Judge in the London Courts. If you know of other brave and courageous people who have overcome adversity, then please share. As I feel one example can show that we all have what it takes, but we decide not to risk our conditioning. We make an agreement with ourselves, not to risk what we have for what we want, even if what we have makes us uncomfortable enough for us to escape it in all sorts of stuff.”
Thank you Harish for sharing this inspiring story with us and I welcome more inspiring stories from my readers. You can just share your stories in the comments section or if they are long, please send them to leollonch@gmail.com.
Make it a terrific day,
Leo