Confidence Over Perfection: How I Found My Voice”
Confidence is real. Thanks for asking. Have you heard the saying that if a mad man is confident in what he’s saying, that people will believe him. Well, that’s the power of confidence. When you are confidently, even if you are saying something stupid, you will gain listeners.
Have you seen a lot of crazy people who are confidently talking rubbish on social media? Yet the world is after them. Confidence doesn’t just happen. Confidence is built. On so many occasions I have seen myself lack confidence. Infact all my life, I had struggled with the subject of confidence primarily because I was a stammer. Yea was.
It’s all in the past now. I am glad I could talk without having to worry how to do the talking. Well, stammering made me live without confidence for the good part of my life. I would want to do things or say things but would lack the confidence to do them because how to start talking to people was an issue.
So to boost my confidence, I had to start rehearsing my speeches and appearances. I would have to stand before the mirror and talk gradually. I would have to rehearse speeches in my head over and over again. I would have to rehearse my dressing or any area of my life that I felt would hinder or limit my confidence.
This helped me alot. I also asked a lot of questions where necessary. When I resumed my first job during my youth service, I didn’t have all the confidence I needed but I had to mentally boost it. I told myself that I could do it. Infact it even started from the interview with the management.
I spoke confidently and wasn’t afraid to express myself. The manager Infact told me that he was going to give me the job even though I was small of stature. He loved the way I confidently expressed myself. I had some days to learn from a senior colleague but I had to start working on my own.
The first one week wasn’t too smooth but I confidently chested it. Where I needed help, I wasn’t shy to ask for it. It was all a happening of my mental state. So for me confidence begins with the mind. It’s a mind set. So I see it with my mind first and then I take steps towards it.
During my project defense, I saw the damages that lack of confidence can cause and also the good it can do. Infact I saw some of my course mates who were battling with making a good presentation because they weren’t confident with what they were saying. Even though they knew what to say, they didn’t do well and the lecturers were hammering on the need for confidence on our part.
One of my senior colleague told a very funny story about his project defense day in school. He said as a final year student, he didn’t prepare well for his project defense but he had enough confidence. So when it was he’s turn to talk, he said he was confidently talking rubbish.
He said he knew he was talking rubbish but his level of confidence was something else. After his defense the doctor in charge of the defense team told him that everything he said was rubbish but what she loved was his confidence. She said she has never seen anyone so confident while talking nonsense. She said she would give him an A just for his confidence.
As funny as it sounded, she gave him an A in that defense. His intelligence didn’t get him that A, his confidence did. In any sphere of life we see ourselves in, we must work on building confidence. It will go a long way to help us.
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