The Secrets Of Self-Confidence

How to Act Confident When You Don't Feel Confident - A true story of confidence and courage at work

Heather couldn't believe what she saw...

It was a cold, dreary Friday morning as Heather battled traffic to get to her job. She didn't want to be late, as she had only been at her job for three months, and she wanted to make good impression. She had worked hard to get this job, and had hopes and dreams for a successful career with this company.

As she scurried to get to her desk on time, Heather couldn't believe what she saw....some one had piled stacks and stacks of mail all over her nice clean desk! She was horrified! She knew she couldn't get couldn't get all this mail processed by 5 pm. She had bought tickets to a concert months ago and had looked forward to going with friends, and now she was going to miss it. She would have to stay late once again. Her career with this company depended on it, and she wanted to make a good impression.

Heather was a pleasant looking woman in her mid-twenties. Her shoulder length hair was neat and attractive. She was a serious young woman with a warm smile and a caring attitude. She was responsible for the daily outgoing mail for a group of executives at her company. She was excited to land this job to because she felt that if she got to know the executives it would help her career. It was important that the mail be processed quickly and accurately. It was a big responsibility...and she wanted to make a good impression.

Heather was frustrated...

Heather was frustrated that the outgoing mail requests were just dumped on her desk every day full of misspelled words, wrong addresses, typos, etc. This meant that she had to retype letters, look up correct addresses, correct spelling, decipher memos and compose letters. There was no system--no structure!

So, Heather worked late quite often. She was so frustrated and wanted to change the outgoing mail system, but she was afraid to say anything to the executives. So she registered for a Self-confidence Seminar hoping it might help her communicate with the them. The seminar was to be on Saturday morning...too late to salvage her Friday evening plans, but maybe she could learn something that would save her sanity!

Does this sound like you? ...

Supervisors or Human Resource managers know that an employees's problem solving skills, innovative ideas, and the courage to express them are essential to the success of their company. However, many times employees have the ideas, but not the confidence to present them. Fear of losing their job, negative reactions from co-workers and fear of change itself stifles their initiative.

What Heather learned about building confidence...

In the seminar she learned that the three elements involved in becoming more confident are represented by the word ACT.

A stands for ACTION.

You have to do something to overcome obstacles in order to grow in confidence. In other words, you can't say, "when I get confidence, then I will sing." First you start singing. Then, as you sing, you will gain confidence. First you must take action without having the confidence in order to create the confidence. The next two elements are what make this action effective.

C stands for COURAGE.

It takes a lot of courage to act when confronted with difficult obstacles and challenges. Without courage most people simply stay in their comfort zones doing only what they are good at.

We get courage in many ways. The best way is an inner belief that we can do it no matter how discouraging things get. Most of us don't have this strong inner belief, and we need encouragement. As you can see, the actual word courage is inside the word encouragement.

One way you can get encouragement is from other people. Cheerleaders in your life can give you the energy and motivation you need to keep on going.

Encouragement can also come from songs, inspirational books, poems, and from motivational audio and video tapes. Another very powerful ways to get courage are to tap into your own past courage experiences and use that to give you courage for your present challenges.

T stands for Target

You must have a goal in mind that you want to accomplish. You need a target to aim at. At the same time you need to be open to unexpected results. You may get a pleasant surprise, a result that is different from, but even better than you expected.

Heather found the courage to overcome her fears about talking to the executives from a song she heard at the seminar – "Whistle A Happy Tune" from the King and I.

The words go like this,

"Whenever I feel afraid, I hold my head erect, and whistle a happy tune, and no one will suspect I'm afraid."

All night long that song kept running through Heather's mind. She was not going to let her fear stop her! She thought about how she might accomplish the scary mission of approaching the executives.

Heather's solution...

Heather decided she would formulate a system for the outgoing mail and put it in writing. She spent Sunday writing out a protocol for the executives to show their assistants. – The mail should come with no typos, the addresses should be current, words should be spelled correctly and letters should be signed. She would also provide separate boxes for them to put the mail into, so they wouldn't just be dumped on her desk.

Heather was shaking in her shoes as she showed the protocol to her supervisor."Will I be fired if I pass this directive out to the executives?" Her supervisor looked it over and said, "It looks good to me. Go for it!"

It wasn't long before she received response from the executives, and it wasn't at all like she expected. Several of the executives came to her saying,

"Thank you for writing the list of protocols. We had no idea that we were causing so much trouble."

"This is very well thought out. Thanks for caring about our company."

The big payoff...

But the grand prize came when the Vice President of the company came to her and said,

"I heard that you improved the outgoing mail system. That shows real leadership potential. I'll make a note of that and keep you in mind when there is an opening for a leadership position."

Heather had made her good impression, and from then on the outgoing mail went so smoothly that she never had to stay late again, but, most important, in the process of handling this problem she had grown in confidence. She could now look forward to a successful career at her company, and also to making Friday night plans with her friends without any worries.

Resources that help you Build Your Confidence...

#1

Take our free Confidence Quiz Click Here

#2

The Secrets of Creating Personal Confidence - eBook -

Reveals the 50 confidence building strategies used by top performing people.

• Confidence Basics
• Setting Goals.
• Gathering Courage
• Implementing Your Goals
• Feeling Confident
• Confidence Building Activities

To buy now...

For detailed information Click Here

#3

To buy now...

For detailed information Click here.

Could you benefit from Confidence Coaching?

A select few people who are determined to build their confidence, and are willing to put in the time and effort, can jump start their confidence with private telephone Confidence Coaching.

For information about our telephone confidence coaching program and to sign up for a free session click here.

Would you like to hold a Confidence Seminar at your company or association?

The Secrets Of Self-Confidence is also a workshop/ seminar that you can hold at your company, association, or school. For a detailed outline of the The Secrets Of Self-Confidence workshop/seminar click here.