Great Self Confidence

...to live the life you want

Irrational thinking

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self esteem

Today I want to go into more depth on positive thinking – and what it can and cannot do. It might be easier to start with what it cannot do. You can find many out there who believe their is a “law of attraction“. By thinking and believing (or manifesting an intention as I’ve heard it called) you will attract into your life whatever you desire.

This is a totally irrational belief, which defies science and logic. Many will cite anecdotal examples of how this has worked for them – how their thinking (and manifesting) gained them a promotion, or suddenly brought money into their life. [Read more…]

The Big Swim

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Back from a lovely vacation, back to work, and today – the Big Swim. I had mentioned in a couple of previous posts that I had set myself a challenge of competing the 1.4 mile swim between two piers in Bournemouth, on the South Coast of England. Linked to that was raising £150 ($300) in sponsorship.

The sponsorship stands at about £120 and I am confident that I will pass £150. Whilst on vacation in Croatia I had been able to do quite a bit of swimming and felt confident that I would complete the swim.

The weather in the UK has been awful recently with areas flooded by torrential rains. Fortunately the South coast hasn’t been too badly hit, but the sea today was quite choppy – and very cold by comparison to the Mediterranean Sea off Croatia.

Well, despite getting cramp in my leg at one point, I competed the swim in 1 hour 36 minutes. Of about 1000 starters I was the last to finish! But it wasn’t a race; I feel really pleased to have stretched myself and done something very much outside my comfort zone. And yes, it has boosted my self confidence as well.

Great self confidence – travel

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In April I was writing about my daughter having the self confidence to work in a children’s home in India for 3 months. Now I have just been listening to a colleague, Sophie, who has just given up a good job to do some voluntary work as an Occupational Therapist in the Himalayas, a remote, mountainous region of Northern India.

I say “listening” as she has just been speaking on local radio about her plans. and is going to be regularly phoning the local station to update them on her progress. This itself takes confidence, as I found out when confronted by a camera last month (fortunately my “take” didn’t make the final DVD!).

I know whilst outwardly Sophie presents as very confident, she has had doubts and fears about what she is undertaking. But only the foolhardy never have doubts or fears. Great things are achieved because such thoughts are looked at rationally, risks balanced, plans and commitments are made. Sophie – you have my best wishes, look after yourself.

Pier to Pier update

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About 6 weeks ago I posted in Come for a swim? my intention of doing a challenge. In this case swimming 1.4 miles in the cold English sea between two piers! I also said I would raise £150.

In my mind, I’ve never regarded myself as a great one for raising sponsorship. As an adult I’ve only done it once before (Dublin Marathon 2003). On that occasion I did raise £1500 for the Alzheimer’s Society, as my father had died from that disease. But my mother was quite a driving force, holding a coffee morning and generally “forcing the pace”.

I think some of my negative attitude regarding sponsorship was down to my belief that asking someone to give you money, for doing something difficult, physically challenging, unpleasant and possibly life threatening (tragically so in April) was a bit silly. Why run 26 miles, when its quicker and more pleasant by taxi?!

My attitude now is more relaxed – asking for sponsorship for a challenge is an acceptable social formula for encouraging people to donate to a worthy cause. Consequently I feel quite confident asking people to sponsor me. I only started this week and have already I’ve got £50. Not feeling slightly embarrassed about asking friends and colleagues for money has made the process a lot easier!

As for swimming, I’ve been in the sea a few times, but its so cold and rough at the moment its hard to do any distance. And I find swimming in pools are so boring. But having made a commitment – and now got people to pledge money – it does ensure I’ll keep at it.

A Sad Twist to an Earlier Blog

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We’ve all done it – typed our name into Google to see who else is out there (or whether we register in some way!). I did this yesterday and had quite a shock. I had blogged about the London marathon back in April, saying how completing it was such a tremendous achievement.

What I didn’t know until yesterday was that a 22 year old completed the marathon, his first, then later collapsed and died. He, like me, was called David Rogers. The Google link above took me to his Justgiving page, which is now full of condolences and tributes.

David Rogers died from drinking too much water – hyponatraemia – whilst running the marathon on what was a quite a hot day. As a fitness instructor he was undoubtedly better prepared to run a marathon than most, but sadly and cruelly he died at his moment of success.

I write this not to be morbid, but to remind us all how precious life is and how suddenly it can be taken away from us. Generally we enhance the quality of our life by taking up challenges and subjecting ourselves to risk. In the short term the safest thing we can do is stay in bed – but long term that would destroy us.

And yes – this David Rogers is still intending to swim the pier to pier in July!