Great Self Confidence

...to live the life you want

Authority Blogging

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Sometimes my posts have veered off topic or had only a tenuous link to self confidence or self esteem. This post is more of a reflection on why I blog and how I would like to improve things over the next year. I started blogging at the end of March 2007. So as this is a sort of anniversary, please forgive any self indulgence.

In my recent tinkering and upgrading of this site, I have also added a couple of advertising “widgets”. Whilst I don’t expect this blog to generate any significant income, like most I’m used to getting financially rewarded when I do work that benefits others.

My previous hesitancy was whether putting adverts or affiliate links on my blog would dilute its “authority”. That sounds totally pretentious – and has probably knocked my authority for six anyway! But that was something I picked up in my early days learning how to be a blogger.

The work authority has come up a few times for me recently. Initially I was inspired to write a post for a competition, about being an Authentic Blogger, by Chris Garrett. Despite being someone I would describe as an authority himself Chris responded to my first attempt at a meme. Consequently I’ve been an avid reader of his daily blogging ever since!

Over the past weekend I found myself struggling when trying to explain why I started a blog. I was on a Coaching for Occupational Therapists course – all of us experienced, professional people who are embarking on training that will give us expertise to practice in a related field. [Read more…]

How to Look Confident

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confident dogDo you look confident? If I spotted you are a social gathering, what would your body language say – “Go away, I don’t want to be here” or “Come and meet me”? I’ve read different statistics, but its fair to say over 70% of our communication is transmitted by our body language.

So how do you change your outer appearance, even if your self talk is still struggling to get over negative thoughts. Here are a few tips to practice:-

Start off with your feet at least 12 inches apart and have your weight even distributed between both feet. Also have your soles of your feet evenly planted on the ground – think of the ball of your foot, the heel and a point just below the little toe as a tripod, supporting the rest of your body. [Read more…]

A Confident Move

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Over the past ten days I have moved this blog to a new server and upgraded it to the latest version of WordPress. I had become dissatisfied with the service I was getting from my previous “home”, and decided I needed to move. But in the run up to doing so, I found a lot of my energy and focus was on moving, rather than writing.

Having gained confidence in managing the technology around maintaining a blog, I suddenly realized I was entering new territory and things could go horribly wrong. Whilst there have been a few problems, especially with upgrading, that have left this blog in a rather wonky state at times, things are settling down.

I write this not just to explain the increasing gaps between posts recently, but to reflect on how easily our confidence can fall away when we step out of our comfort zone. [Read more…]

How to find Happiness

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happinessI have read quite a few posts about happyness recently, as another blogger Alex Shalman has a Happiness project going on. Its taken me a while to answer his questions, which are at the end of this post.

I have read many times that if you’re aim and energies are directed to finding happiness itself, you will never find it. That to try and seek happiness directly is doomed to failure. I would very much subscribe to that view. But whilst recognizing that this is important, it doesn’t take away from the fact that as individuals and society we can do many things that will make us happier.

Some argue that Governments should do more, and focus less on economic growth and more on policies that will help the people they serve find happiness. Some Governments, such as Bhutan, have even started to do that! The fact remains that despite having greater wealth, better standards of living and possessions galore to improve our happiness, in most Western countries happiness levels have declined over the past 50 years. [Read more…]

Do you believe the answers?

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Today I said I’d post the answers to the quiz I set within the Seven Strange Things post. Congratulations to Amy for getting the answers nearly all correct – as I explain below I don’t think you can find an answer to question (i) on the Internet. Here are the questions again:-

i) How many vertebrae does a giraffe have?
ii) Whose moment of flame came on 25th July 1992
iii) Which of Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes Stories takes its name from a racehorse?
iv) What is the connection between Citizen Kane and The Brownies?
v) How many people have walked on the moon?
vi) What was the loudest noise ever recorded on earth?
vii) Who wrote the chart topping hit (for Maria Carey amoungst others) “Without You”

Answers:-
(i) Like most mammals the giraffe only has 7 vertebrae in its neck, but that wasn’t the question. Amy, like others before her, I assume found the website that erroneously states 24. The answer is between 45 and 51, slight variations taking place between species of giraffe.

When I originally set the quiz, 4 years ago, I had to go to a Natural History Museum (in Dublin) to count the vertebrae on a giraffe’s skeleton! That one had 48. The person who got the answer correct used to carry out postmortems on giraffes when working as a zoo pathologist… [Read more…]