Tag: confidence

Project your attitude

When you greet someone, say “hello” cheerfully and smile. Look them in the eyes. Have a firm handshake. Stand up straight. Keep your head up and your shoulders pulled back. Project confidence. Project happiness.

People want to work with and be around people who are magnetic. The list above is something that can help you be magnetic, even if you don’t feel like you are. Nobody wants to be around a negative/pessimistic person with low confidence.

The other thing you want to do is try to make others feel better. If they feel great every time they leave a conversation with you, they’ll want to continue to have more conversations with you. Be uplifting, but don’t be a pushover. Be agreeable, but not too agreeable. Don’t be afraid to speak your mind/tell the truth, but do it in a constructive way. Have a positive attitude and they’ll know that any criticism is coming from a good place (you trying to help).

Believe in yourself

“Believe you can and you’re halfway there.” – Theodore Roosevelt

If you want to achieve great things, the first thing you must do is believe…believe that you can do it! Because if you don’t really think it’s possible, you’ll subconsciously look for reasons why you can’t do it instead of finding ways to do it. You might have to think outside the box to get it. You might have to follow a path someone else has already cleared. But almost assuredly, if it’s a challenging goal, you’re likely to at least stumble along the way. This is why believing that you can do it AND believing that you’re strong enough to overcome any adversity that comes your way is so important. When you inevitability make a mistake, you’ll realize it’s not permanent, and you’ll find a way to move on and grow from it.

Believe in yourself. Make a plan. Take action. Re-evaluate as necessary. Persist through difficulty. And continue to make progress towards your goal(s) every day.

On selling

Confidence is key to selling. If you lack confidence and are meek, it doesn’t matter if you have the best product and it’s at a great price. If you leave any doubt or confusion in the buyer’s mind, you’ll lose them to more confident competitors.

When you lack confidence in your own product, people will find reasons (real or made up) as to why it’s not a good purchase.

Know your product inside and out. Know the competition’s product. Understand the market in general. Be positive, talk clearly and concisely, and be energetic (but not annoyingly so). Dress according to what is expected of the product you’re selling and the people you’re selling to. When in doubt, slightly overdress as opposed to being underdressed for the occasion.

Follow through

One of the most underrated attributes has to be someone’s ability to follow though with doing what they said they would do.

Did you call the person back when you said you would?

Did you go work out when you said you would?

Did you get the piece of information you said you would?

There are so many things we “promise” we’ll do and then never actually do it.

Don’t be that person. Make your words mean something. Inspire confidence in other’s belief in you by rewarding them for doing so. If you constantly don’t do what you say you’re going to do, why should they believe you? Give them confidence to endorse you to their friends. The more you follow through, the easier it will be for them to think you’ll get it done.

Experience makes things easier

Whenever you first encounter a new problem, it can seem overwhelming. You don’t know what to do. Trying to find the right answer or response is hard. But once you figure it out, once you’ve experienced it, the next time you face that problem, it will seem easier. But the obstacle hasn’t changed, only your ability to overcome that obstacle has.

The obstacle is what it is. How you (and others) view it depends on what it is in comparison to. Your experience has shaped you and helped strengthen you, making the “hurdle” that is the obstacle appear to shrink. And over time, as you continue clearing the hurdle with relative ease, it will seem even smaller.

So, as you face new challenges, keep that in perspective. It may seem like a massive undertaking today, but you’ll look back at this in a year and wonder why you thought it was such a big deal.