Week 40: Confidence destroys fear.

When your confidence goes up, your competence goes up at the same time. (Zig Ziglar)

Confidence is contagious. So is lack of confidence. (Vince Lombardi)

Doing what is right will increase your confidence and destroy your fear. (Richard Angelus)

 One night I received a message from Wawa. She will be having a team presentation soon and asked me on how to gain confidence. With little time to thought things through, I give her some tips that might be helpful. But as I reflect on it later, I realized the fact that we cannot build confidence over night. All confidence is acquired. It must be developed. No one is born with confidence. It must be built one day at the time.

One of my greatest strengths (and also my greatest weaknesses) is having a fair amount of confidence. I once read that confidence can leads to two courses: It can lead to pride, which results in arrogance and boosting, or it can lead to inner assurance, which produces a healthy self-esteem. I hope that your confidence will produce a healthy self-esteem.

David J. Schwartz, Ph.D. in his must read book The Magic of Thinking Big, suggests 5 simple confidence-building exercises (explanations mine) that I had personally practice and passed the test of time that will surely increase (or build) your confidence. 

1)         Be a front seater. Sitting up front builds confidence. The reason most people (not all, but most) sit in the very back rows is because they are afraid to be noticeable - they are lack of confidence. The writer suggest you to sit as close to the front as you can, but I recommend you to sit at least somewhere in the middle onwards.

2)         Practice making eye contact. ‘It not only gives you confidence, it wins you confidence, too.’ This is why my eyes are big!

3)        Walk 25% faster. Psychologists tell us that we can actually change our attitudes by changing our posture and speed of movement. I never had seen anyone who walks like a snail and feel much confidence. [P.s: East Malaysian try to walks faster ya. West Malaysians walks slower a bit ya – just increase 25% from your normal walking pace okay.]

4)         Practice speaking up. ‘The more you speak up, the more you add to your confidence, and the easier it is to speak up the next time. Speak up. It’s confidence-building vitamin.’ I know that sometime people may laugh at your ideas or comments, I had been there, just ignore those looser. Speak up in order to learned but don’t speak something that obviously foolish.

5)         Smile big. Smile is excellent medicine for confidence deficiency. It doesn’t hurt. As a matter of fact, it makes you feel good and you will begin to radiate confidence. Smile! Smile! Smile!

As Christ follower, I believe that to have a total confidence that will never perish and will ensure a greater reward eternally is to have confidence in the Lord. This confidence doesn’t come from your physical circumstances such as how you look or what you achieve or any of the 5 practices above, but from inner assurance that God is by your side. For this I have only one practice to suggest:

1)         Have confidence in the Lord. Take comfort in Him, go to His promises in the Bible and your confidence in Him will grow stronger. The words of Prophet Jeremiah (17:7) said, “Blessed are those who trust in the Lord and have made the Lord their hope and confidence.” To have confidence in Lord is to have a genuine confidence indeed. Fear will not affect you anymore for your confidence is not depend on external circumstances but rather in His faithful promises.

Divine moments for Leaders comment on Confidence: The word for confidence is often translated in the Bible as boldness. With Jesus by our side, we can boldly step out in faith to do His work. We can have confidence that we can do anything within His will. Our ultimate confidence comes from trusting that God’s Word is true. Then we can endure any trials we face here on earth and be sure of all blessings that await us in heaven.

Remember: THINK BIG Confidence destroys fear. START SMALL by increasing your confidence one day at the time. GO DEEP One thing you must do to gain genuine confidence is to have confidence in the Lord.  

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More quotes (Added later)

The greater and more persistent your confidence in God, the more abundantly you will receive all that you ask. (St. Albert The Great)


Confidence as an outgoing act is directness and courage in meeting the facts of life, trusting them to bring instruction and support to a developing self. (John Dewey)


Confidence is a plant of slow growth. (English Proverbs)


Confidence begets confidence. (Latin Proverbs)

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