3 STEPS FOR GAINING CONFIDENCE

Anytime you have something to do, it feels good to have a method or formula that you can count on – a foolproof scheme that cannot be denied. When you have it, suddenly you have the terrific ingredient so often talked about: confidence.

How do you get confidence?

There’s no secret there. You become good at what you do. Or you get a formula you know will lead to excellence, and then confidence just sort of seems to sneak in on its own.

So how do you learn to perform extremely well? What is the secret formula for achieving, for getting things done?

The formula comes in three distinct parts.

STEP 1: Realize that any journey begins with a single step, and take that first step.

Regardless of what you want to do – write a book, be a star athlete, build a house, run a marathon, own a business – you have to start! Many great undertakings fail simply because they never begin at all.

STEP 2: Divide your journey into small steps, and commit yourself to a schedule for achieving each one. Try to take a step every day.

Take a small step toward your goal each day. Not a huge, difficult step, but a small “takeable” step. Do something you can do, and move ahead.

We are all impatient to achieve our goals, fulfill our dreams, realize our visions, and so on. Impatience is natural. It’s a part of everyone. Replace it. Relax. Be patient. And, enjoy the towering inevitability of step 3.

STEP 3: Watch the passage of time.

Try as you may, you cannot stop time from passing. That seems the same as saying nothing at all, but actually it is saying a great deal if you have followed steps 1 and 2. If you have begun, and if you have committed yourself to taking daily steps, you must go forward. If you want to write a book, writing one page a day will absolutely assure you of having a 365-page book after just one year. If you want to be a basketball player, you shoot 1,000 shots every day for a year. That becomes 365,000 shots! Anyone who takes 365,000 shots becomes a good shooter. It is inevitable. That is the magic of the formula. Of course it takes effort and commitment and determination. But in some ways those are scary words – things we all fear we lack. Personally I prefer not to think in those terms. Rather, I want only to concentrate on one day. Not a full year of days. Just this day. Can I take my step today? That I can do. And I will do.

In other words, narrow your thinking. Once you decide on a course of action, forget the big picture. Deal with your challenge a day at a time. Just do today’s work. Take today’s tiny step, and let the inevitable passage of time work for you, not against you.

(From Dick DeVenzio's 'Running The Show')