Many folks used to be frighteningly under confident in social situations.
And although people who know me now would never believe I used to doubt myself
so much I literally had to learn confidence until it became a natural part of
me. I can tell you relaxed optimistic confidence is just, well so much more
fun.
Here I’ll tell you about the things that made the most
difference to my confidence levels…
Some people have naturally high levels of confidence but
everybody can learn to be more confident
Firstly, it’s important to get a clear idea of what self
confidence really means, otherwise you won’t know when you’ve got it! So, self
confidence means:
1) Being calm. For every situation
in life you need to run on the appropriate level of emotion. Too much emotional
‘leakage’ into a experience can spoil the experience. You make great strides
towards confidence when you begin to relax in a greater range of situations.
2) Being cool. The second part of
self confidence is about being able to relax with uncertainty. To be ‘cool’ in
a situation really means relaxing with not knowing how things will pan out. If
you truly tolerate uncertainty, you can do pretty much anything.
3) Not being too concerned with what others think of you. You
know when you imagine what some place is going to be like before you go there
but when you get there it is totally different to your imagination? That’s how
reliable your imagination is! Stop trusting your imagination so much. I’ve long
since stopped bothering to imagine what others think of me because so often
I’ve turned out to be wrong.
4) Being specific – where do you want confidence? ‘Confidence’
is meaningless until you tie it to something specific. You are already
confident that you can read these words or can switch a light on and off. So
you don’t need more confidence everywhere. To get what you want in life you
have to establish exactly what you do want. Where do you want confidence in
your life? Think about the specific situations now and write them down. You
beginning to steer your brain towards confidence.
5) Understanding that what you expect is what you get. Your
brain is an organ that needs clear goals to work towards. When a task has been
set in your brain it will do everything it can do to bring about the completion
of that task. If you’ve tried to recall someone’s name but can’t, hours later
you’ll often find their name pops into your head.
The ‘trying to recall’ experience set the task or blueprint for
your brain’s future subconscious behaviour which eventually produced the name
for you – when you weren’t thinking about it consciously. You can use this
natural mechanism to start feeling more confident. But, to ensure you set the
right task for your subconscious mind, the next point is vital.
6) Don’t task your mind with negatives. Instead
of: ‘I don’t want to screw up’ (which sets the task of ‘screwing up’ for your
brain), set the blueprint for what you do want! Your brain doesn’t work towards
what to do by being told what not to do. And nature has given you a wonderful
natural tool to set the right task blueprints with.
7) Use nature’s goal-setter: Now you understand
how vital it is to set the right task for you brain, you need to know how to do
this reliably. Good hypnosis will strongly ‘program’ the right blueprint in
your mind through the use of your imagination. If you powerfully imagine
feeling confident and relaxed while in a relaxed hypnotic state it will be hard
for your unconscious mind to do anything else. The blueprint for relaxation has
been set firmly into your subconscious mind.
3 simple strategies to get you feeling confident quickly:
1) Think specifically of the time/place/situation you want to
feel confident in. Remember ‘confidence’ doesn’t mean anything until you attach
it to something specific.
2) Focus on words in your mind right now that describe how
you do want to be in that time and place. Maybe words such as ‘calm’, ‘relaxed’
or ‘focused’. Remember your brain works on clear positive instructions.
3) Close your eyes for as long as you like and think about
how those words feel. Then, imagine the situation itself and rehearse it in
your mind feeling confident and relaxed. This way you set the right blueprint
or ‘task’ for your unconscious mind.
You can repeat this often to make it more effective and use it
with as many areas of your life as you need to. If you listen to a hypnotic cd
or download that can make the benefits even more powerful (see my profile
below). So if you feel like you’d be blessed with less confidence than some
other people you can start redressing the balance by using your mind in the
right way right now.
It took me years to learn how to be more confident – now you can
do it in a fraction of the time. Good luck!