Day # 31 - Confidence

"Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Endeavour to live the life which you have imagined." - Henry David Thoreau
"Confidence... is very sexy." - Jack Palance

Note: This was inspired by a series of phone calls I received yesterday. Issues that could easily have been solved by a more confident person. Instead, I had to be called in to make decisions.

What is it about confident people? You can't help being attracted to them. Confidence separates the winners from the losers. Confidence is what a baseball player needs to hit a ball coming at him at 100 miles per hour. It's what a quarterback needs to launch a football to a spot 60 yards away when his receiver isn't there yet. Confidence is how you get a date. Confidence is how you ask for the sale. Confidence is integral to success.

What's the worst answerto any question? "Whatever you want is fine with me," comes to mind. Please understand, I am a confident person, but I usually end up answering my wife that way because I am smart enough to choose my battles.

You wouldn't follow a leader without confidence. Imagine a president who didn't have the courage of his convictions. Never mind, mission accomplished. How about a general leading an army? George Patton was perhaps the greatest general of all time because of his confidence. If he ever felt fear or timidity, he saved it for his private moments. The troops saw a confident man, who knew what had to be done and never second guessed himself.

Ronald Reagan stared down the Soviet Union. Had he flinched, things might have turned out differently. JFK had a similar experience with the Soviets during the Cuban Missile Crisis. These were confident men and their confidence mattered in a way that affected the lives of everyone on the planet.

Think about Yogi Berra, the great Yankee catcher. He was small, uncoordinated, and at first sight looked more like he sould be selling peanuts at Yankee Stadium than playing there. Yet he played in more World Series games and got more rings than any other player. Maybe everyone was right about Yogi. Maybe he wasn't capable of doing those things. It's a good thing Yogi didn't know that.

My point is: be confident. Know you are capable of anything if you put your mind to it. Take a leap of faith. Faith inspires confidence. When you know your life is in the hands of a greater power, a power that always has your best interest in mind, a power that never makes mistakes, you can be confident.

How did Mother Teresa do the things she did? How are miracles performed? How did the Wright Brothers fly? How are bridges built? Think about the first skydiver. The first guy to eat an oyster. The first guy to look at a wooly mammoth and think, "I bet those things taste great!" Where would we be without confidence? Where would we be without Harriet Tubman? Abraham Lincoln? If Donald Trump weren't confident, how could he get away with that ridiculous hairstyle. (Even I'm not that confident.)

Lessons:

- Preparation equals confidence. Do your homework, never fly blind if you can help it
- If there is something you don't like about yourself, change it. If you can't change it, accept it
- Look people in the eye. Nothing betrays your lack of confidence like the inability to hold the gaze of another person
- Know -don't think, know!- that no one is better than you. No one is better than you! (Repeat it as necessary.)

Today's Declarations:

- Day by day in every way I am getting better and better
- I am a confident person. My confidence gives me favor in the eyes of people I meet and serves as a shield to protect me
- No one is better than me
- People can only see my qualities, not my flaws
- Today, I will make the effort to improve myself in some small way

Confidence is a choice. You can be confident or you can settle for second best. It really is that simple. Make the choice to be more confident. Commit to it, and it will be so. It's like anything else. You can have it if you want it bad enough.

Make it your best day yet. God bless you.

-Adolfo


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