Sow The Seeds Of Confidence And Watch Them Grow
What you sow you reap is a time-honoured truism. If you plant an acorn in moist, fertile soil, it will grow into a mighty oak. It can’t help it, it’s genetically programmed that way.Similarly, no matter what has gone before, if you plant the seeds of confidence in your consciousness through your intentions, thoughts, attitudes and beliefs, imaginings, actions and words, and keep them well nourished, confidence will grow.You’ll notice I said no matter what has gone before .
Certainly you have been influenced by past events and circumstances, but they do not tell the whole story. The seeds – or causes – that have blossomed into the person you are include: Your genetic inheritance and biochemistry (hormones etc). Scientists tell us that these account for around 25-35% of your character. The environment in which you were raised, including people. Your unique way of trying to make sense of it all, both at the time and now.
Obviously you cannot change your genes, and you cannot change your biochemistry without resorting to drastic, potentially dangerous measures (drugs etc). But if greater confidence is your aim, there’s no need. Because although your genetic inheritance is known to play a role in determining how outgoing you are, whether you are volatile or placid, and your predisposition for certain mental health problems (such as stress, depression, addictions and compulsive behaviours), no causal link has ever been found between genes and confidence.
Confidence (or lack of it) is learned, mostly in the first few years of childhood. It began to take shape when you were weak and vulnerable, after which it became self-reinforcing. And anything which has been learned can be reappraised and replaced with new, superior learning.
“Yesterday is but a dream / And tomorrow only a vision / But today well lived makes / Every yesterday a dream of happiness / /And every tomorrow a vision of hope / Look well therefore to this day." -Traditional Indian Poem
‘what Would My Mother Say?’
At 52 years of age George Stratford was sleeping rough on a park bench, jobless, penniless and feeling too old to make a new life. Then one morning he woke with a start, haunted by the thought, ‘What would my mother say if she could see this bum I’ve turned into?’
It made him
think . He stopped feeling sorry for himself and became determined to sort himself out. He thought of the novel he had started several years earlier and never completed, and affirmed his
intention to finish it and get it published.
His
imagination wandered to his dream of becoming a novelist. How wonderful it would be to be a famous author!
Then he took
action . He enrolled at a local college to study English, and the following year won a place on an advertising course after submitting the first two chapters of his novel. Then he spent the last of his savings on the train fare to London to take up a work experience placement at a top advertising agency, and despite sleeping rough at this time, was taken on by them on a permanent basis. Simultaneously he wrote a minimum of 1,000 words a day until his novel was finished.
The culmination of George’s efforts was the launch of his novel, In
The Long Run, at a star-studded reception in London. Set against the backdrop of the Comrades’ Marathon in South Africa, one of the world’s most arduous races, it explores the themes of confidence, courage and determination – qualities which the author demonstrates in abundance!