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| Image Credit: Chris Highland |
Marcus Tullius Cicero, the Greek philosopher once said, “ If you have no confidence in yourself you are twice defeated in the race for life. With confidence you have won even before you have started.”
I meet so many people who believe confidence is a highly precarious state that is here one minute and shattered the next. Rather like standing on a pinnacle high up. A place that was very hard to reach in the first place and very easy to fall from. But how do others stay there?
Let me tell you what confidence isn't… It isn't about finding perfection. If you were to ask people who you admire if they make mistakes you know the answer, they do, in fact they welcome them as it shows they are doing something through which they will grow. It isn't about being beyond criticism either. There will always be people who criticise you whether you feel it is justified or not. Thirdly, it isn't always about being consistent either.
Confidence is the understanding that, as long as you are setting yourself realistic challenges, you are standing on flat ground and you (like the rest of us) deserve to be there. Unless you have just started playing the violin and have applied for a lead role with the London Philharmonic your expectations are probably realistic! In fact, if you are looking at a new challenge now then it is highly likely you are ready for it. But do you believe it?
And a word about over-confidence. It is something so far away from most of us and out of our reach that few of us actually know how it feels. It is highly unlikely to be coming your way soon!
Confidence is you. It is now. It is not out of your reach. It is not a mystery. It is not a perfect creation or beyond criticism. As Cicero suggests, if you can’t take the responsibility for recognising confidence for what it is than you have set yourself up to fail. On the other hand, if you can, you have already arrived and nothing can take that away from you.
John Hassall, Founder & Creative Director, Johass
PS Words often capture a false sense of their original meaning over time and CONFIDENCE is one of those words. Our young people are truly valuable and perhaps our education system makes it difficult for them to understand why and how they can and should be confident in themselves?
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