Self-Confidence: The First Step To Achieving Success

The desire to be known, to be loved or admired, to be respected and appreciated is a feeling common to humanity, but only a few attain it. For some people, such desires are easily or naturally attained, while for others, they have to put in some effort to make their desires come true.

In the past, people were more interested in the success stories of famous people. But nowadays, there is a curve to it; people are not only interested in success stories, but in the challenges, the sufferings, the bad and the ugly stories of people that eventually led to their success stories. This new awareness, I believe, should give hope to those who have lost belief in their abilities to get into their limelight. Indeed, there is hope! There is just as much opportunity for everyone and anyone who wants to succeed in life!

The journey to the limelight is not an easy one, and the amount of work required varies from one person to another. For some, it is not burdensome, as they might already have the enabling environment that supports their journey. For example, they might belong to families where there is so much love, admiration, and respect for each other; they might be members of schools, churches, mosques, or any social groups where there is a practice of love, mutual respect, and praise for one another. The people in this category, I see them as the fortunate.

However, some persons do not have such an enabling environment that could be instrumental to the attainment of their desires. For such individuals, the amount of work required is so great, beyond our imaginations! Surprisingly, whatever has to be done must start with the person. It is what I like to call the “Inward – Outward flow.”

The starting point for anyone who desires to be successful is to know all there is to know about themselves – their personality, physical characteristics, abilities, strengths, and weaknesses (I prefer to call it improvement areas). The next phase would be to have desires and aspirations, little ones at first, and bigger ones as one progresses to attain his aspirations. The following phase would be to work towards the attainment of those desires and aspirations. Unfortunately, most people give up during this phase and their stories are never told.

The tool that keeps one going is the constant belief in oneself and the ability to achieve success. What lubricates this tool is the person’s confidence level. The higher the self-confidence a person has, the stronger the belief in the person’s ability to achieve anything.

Self-confidence is accepting oneself – the physical, emotional, psychological, and intellectual makeup of oneself. More importantly, self-confidence is trusting in oneself and the ability to be committed to and achieve a set goal or aim. I strongly believe that the popular saying “whatever the mind can conceive, it can achieve” is a good reflection of not only the presence of self-confidence, but of high self-confidence. The man who thinks he can conquer the world can conceive ground-breaking ideas, but the man who sees only obstacles would rather want to play safe or opt for safe routes. This is an evidence of low self-confidence and is what distinguishes the successful from the unsuccessful ones.

To the man who desires to be successful – to be known, loved and admired, to be respected and appreciated, he must be self-confident; he must believe in and trust his abilities and must be committed to the work required. The higher or stronger his self-confidence, the stronger the belief that he can achieve anything he sets his mind to achieve and the closer he gets to achieving his goals.

#MMBA3