Confidence and The Enemy Within You

"It's hard to fight an enemy who has outposts in your head"

The more self-confidence you have, the more likely you are to succeed in life. So, if you lack self-confidence, does that mean that failure is inevitable? Only you can answer that question. The bottom line is that if you believe that your lack of self-confidence makes your failure inevitable, you will inevitably fail.

Henry Ford once said, "Whether you think you can or think you can't, you're right." Think about that for a moment. Only you can decide the outcome of your life. The way you think affects every single aspect of your life. If you think you're a failure, guess what? You are a failure - even when everyone around you tells you you're a success. For example, a beautiful young woman can look in the mirror and see an ugly face looking back at her. Everyone tells her she's beautiful but she tells herself she's ugly - therefore she believes she is ugly. 

A talented athlete can be preparing for a major event. His coach tells him he's ready, his results in training are telling him he's ready but he tells himself he's not ready - therefore he believes he's not ready. In both cases, their beliefs are based on nothing real, in fact their thoughts are totally irrational, but because it's what they believe to be real, it becomes their reality.

The negative voice inside the young woman's head is the enemy within - she is effectively her own worst enemy. For as long as she chooses to listen to and believe what that negative voice is telling her, she is choosing to let negativity cloud her vision and her world. The same applies to the athlete. He is choosing to let the negative voice of self-doubt railroad his confidence into oblivion. What you think you are, you are. What you think you can or can't do, you're right!

However, going around shouting your mouth off about how great you think you are, doesn't mean that you are great. You only need to watch an episode of 'The Apprentice' on TV to see 'confidence' personified but having the self-confidence to talk the talk does not in itself guarantee you success. Real confidence comes from within; it comes from knowing that you can also walk the walk. If you never doubt yourself, you're not self-confident, you're simply arrogant! Of course, being 'quietly confident' wouldn't make great TV.

Genuine self-confidence comes from knowing who you are and knowing what you're capable of achieving. That knowledge comes from challenging yourself and successfully meeting those challenges. If you lack self-confidence, your biggest challenge is to silence the negative voice of the enemy within. So, how do you fight an enemy with outposts in your head? The first step is to recognise that self-doubt is not something you have to accept. The negative voice in your head does not have all the answers - put it to the test.