Working Out Your Confidence Muscle
Confident people seem to get more done. They seem to have more success. Other people seem to gravitate towards them. Did you know you don’t even have to be naturally confident to reap the rewards of confidence? You simply need to do what confident people do. Here are six examples:
Have a sense of urgency
Confident people don’t put off doing what needs to be done. They don’t jump in rashly and move before they’re ready (setting themselves up for failure) but they also don’t wait for absolute perfection. Once everything is in place they don’t procrastinate. They move forward and towards that evolving perfection.
If there is a problem or an emergency they don’t delay in dealing with it. Rather than letting the problem fester or grow or stagnate they figure out how to fix it right away.
Only compare their progress against themselves
Rather than comparing their progress against what other people have done or are trying to do, confident people use themselves as a benchmark. They know what they intend to do, and what they hope to do and they either fall short of or exceed those expectations and adjust accordingly.
No Excuses
When things go wrong most people’s first impulse is to scrounge around to try and deflect attention by placing blame elsewhere. Work didn’t get done on time or to the expected standard. Instead of coming up with excuses like, I suddenly got inundated with unexpected work, or I was busy helping Rachel figure things out, confident people take ownership of every aspect of their lives – no excuses necessary.
Don’t get caught up in gossip
They neither worry about whatever gossip might be flying around about them, nor gossip or speak negatively about others. They gracefully accept criticism about themselves or their work without getting defensive and they offer the same to others without negativity or personal attacks.
Stepping into fear
Instead of turning away from things that scare them, confident people will turn towards them. Like everyone else, they have a comfort zone, but they step out of it consistently.
Strong sense of purpose
Erma Bombeck once wrote a book, If Life Is A Bowl of Cherries, What Am I Doing in the Pits? Life isn’t a bowl of cherries. There will be setbacks. There will be fall-downs and mistakes and unforeseeable circumstances. Confident people see these for what they are, steps along the way. Learning experiences. They don’t let problems define or deter them. They know, the pits don’t detract from the sweetness of the cherries.