Self Confidence: The Strength We All Have

Some people are just brimming with charisma. Out front, they seem nice. Everyone likes them, everyone wants to be their friend, and they seem to be able to walk up to just about anyone and start a conversation. Regardless of who this person truly is, people want to be around them.

On the other hand, you have the individuals who keep to themselves. They’re the kind of people who often excel in school, but don’t have many friends, don’t project much of a presence, and can easily become depressed. They sometimes tell themselves that they’re just not good with people, and that it’s all right. Yes, it’s all right, but not necessarily good. These people lack one thing: confidence. Once these individual gain just a little bit of confidence, everything else falls in order.

What does it mean to be confident? This is a good question. Really and truly, it’s subjective. What one person might see as confidence, another might view as arrogance or boastfulness. These are two qualities that do gain attention, but not the good kind.

The first part of projecting ones confidence is to show it physically. How is one to do this? Well, let’s fall back on the basics. A soldier standing at attention looks like the most disciplined and confident person on Earth. Often, he is. He is trained to be this way. Standing with your back straight and your chin up is a good way to show your confidence. This also helps you to be alert, which shows that you actually care about what’s going on around you, which in turn shows that you’re confident enough to be out in and a part of the world you live in. Believe or not, a few people might actually turn their heads when you enter the room simply because they see you brimming with confidence.

The next is how you interact with people. One of the biggest problems I see, and that I have personally, is not being able to say the right words for the conversation on hand. I have a good idea of what I’m planning to say, but I don’t quite get it across like that. People who use a lot of “um”s or who stutter as they speak are often seen as lacking in confidence, especially in the middle-school and high-school setting, where they can become easy targets for jokes and bullying. Think about exactly what you’re going to say before you say it, and constantly revise this based on how the conversation proceeds. A person who can say exactly what he wants to with maximum effectiveness appears ten times more confident than the person who takes entire minutes to get across what could be said in a single sentence.