Great Self Confidence

...to live the life you want

We all need to celebrate

by

I enjoy this time of year. The countryside is at its most beautiful, the weather is starting to turn, but its not too cold or wet. And although I don’t actively celebrate either, we’re in the midst of two national “festivals” – Hallowe’en and Bonfire Night.

Most countries have days of celebration. Whether linked with religion, national independence, commemorate special people or events, or simply long standing local tradition. Some may be localised in significance, others merit the whole country having a days holiday. Often they can be linked with taking part in certain activities – such as eating or parades/processions that can take weeks of preparation.

Some, like Hallowe’en, are celebrated in different ways across the world and there are different interpretations as to how they originated (Hallowe’en is perceived as a pagan festival of the dead, but has its roots in earlier Christian festivals). Many are quite bizarre! [Read more…]

How to improve your speaking voice

by

help confidenceHaving touched on this last week in Do you sound confident I thought I’d go straight in and include some exercises to improve your speaking voice. But this is a vast subject – like any aspect of self improvement there is no quick fix. Also, there is no one way or one definitive set of exercises.

Firstly, I suggested practicing speaking out loud. This can be to rehearse what you want to say, getting yourself mentally sharper. But it also has the benefit of toning our “speaking” muscles. Lax muscles of the lips, tongue and cheeks can be toned the same way as any other muscle – by exercise.

Its worth coming back to another of my favourite topics – habits. We tend to get in the habit of using our bodies in whatever ways are easiest, and by copying those around us. Through laziness we slouch and stoop, and adopt to the weight we are carrying. Our speech is also a result of poor habits. Speaking clearly takes more effort than muttering or mumbling through hardly opened lips. Or grunting! Unless corrected our tongue, lips and cheeks take the line of least effort. [Read more…]

Are you competitive?

by

Personally I would have always described myself as non competitive. I have never particularly excelled at anything, either academically or sportingly. At school I did OK, but never was top in anything. On sports day I never won anything, being rather slow, and I think the only time I represented my school in anything was at cross country – partly because everyone else hated it!

Some have argued that competition is bad and dents the self esteem of those who don’t win. In the UK some schools now have non competitive sports days where there are no winners or losers – you just take part in glorified obstacle races! Everyone gets prizes and certificates – for taking part. (Then we wonder why our sportsmen and women don’t win much!!!) I’m reminded of the film “Meet the Fockers”, where the Focker parents had a trophy full of their son’s achievements – including a cups for 10th place and similar. [Read more…]

Do you sound confident?

by

I have done a few posts now looking at what we say – “how to say no“, “express opinions“, “express feelings” and confident communication (or “assertiveness“) in general. But I have yet to touch on how we sound, or the quality of our voice

Initially I’ll touch on why our voice lets us down when we most need it. We all have experienced situations when we want to be at our best – giving a speech or presentation, having an interview, trying to impress someone. Unfortunately, these are times when our voice can falter or fade, we stumble our words and ultimately sound anything but confident.

The problem is, of course, that when we want to perform really well, we get anxious [Read more…]

Great Self Confidence – the basics

by

Sometimes we come across something that suddenly gives us the answer to several problems that had got the better of us. This morning I sat down to read “Karate in the Realm of Personal Development” by Priscilla Palmer. As a “premium” member of Personal Development Partners I had been able to download this for free, although it is relatively inexpensive via Priscilla’s site.

The first chapter on Confidence came up with some excellent points. The initial definition that confidence:-

“essentially narrows down to what we think and feel in regards to our self. These thoughts and feelings will determine our lives.”

As I was suggesting a week ago in confidence at work, when we are confident in our abilities, we become confident in ourselves. [Read more…]