How I did it: So "being confident" is some weird hybrid between just faking it and actually feeling it deep within. Do I always feel confident? No, I'm often ridiculously nervous. But acting nervous gets me nowhere. So I act confident, I convince myself that I have the potential to succeed, and by "tricking" myself into thinking that I can do it, I thus enable myself to actually do it.

You can't just wallow in feeling un-confident. You gotta say hey, ya, I'm not perfect but I have a lot of things going for me - like <list of things>. You can be yourself and still be confident, you just gotta realize your own cool traits, and emphasize those, and ignore your shortcomings because everybody has those.

You don't need to compare yourself to others, because they have their own stuff to deal with. Being confident is between you and yourself - act with self-respect, and you will earn respect in return.

Final thought: don't be a cocky douchebag though - nobody likes those. Being confident doesn't mean diminishing the ability of others to be confident in return.

Oct 01, 2008, 01:34AM PDT | 2 comments | 4 cheers