What is confidence? It is a feeling, just like any other feeling, but when we feel confident, we feel good about ourselves and in control. Feelings are just chemicals that are mixed inside our brain. We want you to develop the habit of mixing your own cocktail of chemicals. Rather than automatically mixing those which induce feelings of being worried or stressed, you can learn to mix feelings of confidence or being relaxed or happy.
We find that many people need their confidence building up when trying to break a habit. Those almost inevitable times of weakness that people experience can make them feel vulnerable, and as a result they can lapse back into their old ways. This is when they need to put themselves into a resourceful state, and rise above temptation. Many do this by repeating their affirmation, or using some other exercise that helps restore their confidence.
You may think other people are more talented, luckier or happier than you, and so naturally feel more confident. Maybe some of them do have a better match between inner resources and opportunities, but most successful people have learned to draw on the positive experiences in their lives to build stronger beliefs in themselves and their ability
You must do the thing you think you cannot do.
to achieve. They also draw from negative experiences, but only to learn from them before moving on.
Is it time yet to start living the life that your old way of behaving wouldn't let you? People who succeed, who meet and then out-perform even their own expectations, tend to do things differently from their less successful peers. Hardly surprising, but most of the changes people make come almost naturally from realizing the obvious and taking action. Taking a close look at the alternative to whatever you did in the past can be a very effective motivator. So have a good look at where your actions are taking you. If any generaliza- tion about the unwanted habits people have is true, it's that they take time and money to maintain. What will you do with the time and the money left over once your habit is gone? Choose something, and then do what you need to get it.
We believe our basic quality of life, and therefore how we feel about ourselves, comes down to how we filter what hap- pens to us. Think about some wonderful experiences from your own life and write them down. These can be times when you felt happy and confident and were having fun. What hap- pens when you recall these times? Do you remember the experience as though it were happening now, or do you recall the memory from a distance, as though you were watching a replay on TV?
1 Get into state.
2 Take one of those experiences now and imagine seeing it on a big screen.
3 Make it bigger, brighter, bolder, clearer and imagine the picture starts moving closer to you till it moves inside you and you step back in and relive it.
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1 Now think of a few difficult experiences in your life- no major issues, just times when you had to deal with adversity or apparent failure.
2 What happens when you think about these times? 3 Are you back there in the experience, or can you watch it
from a distance?
Neither way of recalling an event is right or wrong - it is just
the difference in how we have filtered what has happened to us that counts. We need to get some distance from the nega- tive experiences, and move closer to the times we enjoy.
Successful people have learned how to distance them- selves from uncomfortable experiences in their lives. Because they have done this they have a great many positive experi- ences to draw from, and accordingly think, act and expect positive things to happen. Many of us do the opposite and find it hard to recall happy times. We expect things to go wrong, like expecting to fail at breaking a habit.
1 Get into state*.
2 Imagine seeing yourself, as though on a television screen, in the negative experience.
3 lmagine the screen gets smaller, shrinks and moves further away.
4 Make the picture black and white and push it so far away that it is no bigger than the head of a pin.
5 Now make it disappear.
6 Think about the experience again, and notice the difference. It is difficult to feel the same way about it. 7 Do this as many times as you need to, to make the
In being able to recall happy memories, it should be clear that you know how to feel confident. You also feel this way when doing something you are good at and/ or enjoy. It could be cooking, ironing, playing tennis, doing karate or dancing. What you might not know is how to harness that feeling and use it as and when you want to. This is what the next exer- cise will teach you to do.
1 Make a list of all the times in your life when you had a really strong, confident feeling.
2 Pick five of the best and stand up, making sure you have some space in front of you.
3 Get into state*.
4 lmagine a coloured circle in front of you, big enough for you to step into.
5 Recall one of those confident experiences in your life. 6 Imagine you can see yourself in that experience inside the
circle.
7 See what you look like, sound like and feel like, watching that you.
8 When you have a strong recollection of this and are ready, step into the circle and straight back into the experience as though you are there now.
9 Relive that feeling of confidence, making the experience more alive and colourful.
10 When you have absorbed as much confidence as possible from the memory, step out of the circle.
11 Repeat this exercise again with each of the other confident experiences in your life, using your imagination to allow each event to be better than the last as you keep adding to the confidence you already experience in the circle.
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12 When you have done it with each, step into the circle and relive the experiences again, one straight after the other. 13 Now, think of a time in the future when you will need those
feelings of confidence.
14 Imagine yourself in the circle just before you need to be c o n f i d e n t in other words, just before you are usually triggered to fall back into your old habit.
15 As you see yourself, step into the circle and feel the confidence spreading right around your body.
16 Imagine the situation you foresee unfolding around you, with self-confidence fully available to you.
17 Step out of the circle and think about the difficult situation you face.
18 Notice how different you feel about it.
You can take this imaginary circle with you, or you could use the power of your imagination to turn the circle into a bracelet:
1 Look at the circle on the floor. Shrink it in your mind's eye. 2 Look at its bright and shiny colour.
3 Now pick it up and slip it onto your wrist.
4 Squeeze it around your wrist and, as you do so, allow the feelings of confidence that it gives off to spread
throughout your body.
Whenever you need to feel confident in the future, especially before going into a situation you know might be a challenge, squeeze your imaginary bracelet, feel the confidence and deal with the situation.
In addition to this, when you experience times of feeling confident in the future, make your bracelet stronger by squeezing it and adding that feeling to it.
Mini Exercise
This is a really quick way of 'resetting' how you feel during the day, but it might mean changing the way you sit.
At the base of your spine is your pelvis, and at the bottom of your bum as you sit on a chair are two bones. Find them. Now move your centre of gravity and straighten up until you can find the point at which your body is comfortably support- ing itself with minimum effort. Your body is designed to be upright, so this can only be of benefit to you, and by learning to allow your body, and not your chair, to support you, also helps to tighten the stomach muscles.