Great Self Confidence

...to live the life you want

Achieve One Goal

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If you have 1 minute 40 seconds to spare…

Simple, concise and to the point. Whether you agree with all he teaches (or preaches), Brian Tracy is a great communicator. And on this occasion, if you want to use goal setting this is a great technique to get you under way.

Its just over a year since I last wrote specifically about goal setting, as September 23rd marks the 100 day count down till 2011.

Finish the Year with a Bang?

In my post in 2009 I linked in with a promotion for Gary Ryan Blair’s “100 Day Challenge“.  As I say in that post, there is some useful free material made available – in the hope you sign up for his “challenge“.  I wimped out last year, I can’t see myself as an “UNSTOPPABLE POWERHOUSE” – can you?!!

One recurring theme of Gary’s is this accountability – the assumption being that having someone else hold you accountable is an additional driving force to achieving goals. At the end of that post I discuss how the success of organisations like Weight Watchers is their “group accountability”.

However… [Read more…]

Time for Change

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“If you don’t change your direction, you’re likely to end up where you’re heading.”  Chinese proverb.

Vote for Change?

In the UK we are in the throws of an election campaign.  The main opposition party, and favourites to win, have as their slogan “Time for Change“.  Its not unusual for politicians to promise change, and promote themselves as the agent of change.

confident changeWhat surprises me is why its considered a winning slogan – when generally speaking we all seem to hate change.  In our day to day lives we stick to ingrained habits – whether its what we eat, what we do, or how we think.

Desperately Seeking Something?

I recently saw an episode of one of my favourite television shows, “Desperate Housewives”. Like many locations in TV land they have more than their fair share of disasters and trauma; this episode was the post air-plane crash where several characters were in life or death (or life changing) situations.

The whole show was made up of flash backs and “flash forwards” – what would their life be like if….   [Read more…]

How to Find Fulfilment

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One of my favourite posts is  How to Develop Will Power. As I say within it, will power is a somewhat overlooked characteristic within personal development writing. Its something we generally perceive as “difficult” or something we don’t possess.new forest self confidence

We can all conjure up times we’ve  given into temptation (and had that cake) or apathy (didn’t go to the gym) – in other words been weak willed. And its very easy to fall into black and white thinking, mentally beat ourselves up, and use those slip ups as irrefutable evidence that we don’t have will power.

My reasons for bring this up again are twofold.

1) As the earlier post discusses, will power (or mental strength, however you want to re-frame it) is a useful character trait to develop as part of building self confidence.

2) It links in well with a new theme I’ve recently added to this blog – finding fulfilment. And a big part of feeling fulfilled, is getting in the habit of doing – pursuing the occupations that give us satisfaction.

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Finish 2009 with a Bang?

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September 23rd is an important day as it marks the 100 day countdown of 2009. I’m sure as I get older, the years past faster – or is it because our habits and routines become more ingrained?  This video is promotional, but I think a great way of looking at the way we live day to day:-

Is that you? I’d be first to admit I can see a bit of me there. Unfortunately habits are very comfortable. As I’ve said before, building self confidence requires stepping outside your comfort zone.

Are you going to finish 2009 with a Bang?

Gary Ryan Blair, who narrates the video, has created a challenge that centres on “finishing 2009” strong. [Read more…]

Michael Jackson, the Curse of Talent?

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michael-jackson"Being confident is not always the same as being good at something"? That interesting statement appeared recently on another blog, My Life with Angels, which in turn was responding to a post by Maggie Stiefvater. On several occasions I have touched on the issue of whether being good at something is a key way to develop self confidence or healthy self esteem.  My favourite, How to Build Self Confidence Through Activity, looks at examples of children being taught karate, ballet and magic tricks.  I expressed doubt at the choices of ballet or karate,  as many fall by the wayside.  Unless you reach a certain level of competence neither activity will develop self confidence. Whilst success at an activity can help with self confidence, the argument from the other bloggers was you don’t have to first attain success or accomplishment to feel self confident. 

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