When I was little my Nana told me that I was pretty. When I was a teenager she told me that I was smart. These days I’m pretty sure she has no idea what my job is, but she tells me that she is proud of me. All of these things contributed towards my confidence. I don’t think it was any one particular thing, but just a combination of support. I am blessed.
I spend a lot of time thinking about confidence. I coach a lot of friends on both professional and personal issues. The one thing that always surprises me is when I discover that strong, beautiful and wonderful people lack the confidence in themselves that comes so naturally to me. Sure, I have days when I’m not feeling “on,” but most days I believe in myself.
This list is how I define confidence. I didn’t put this list together just for me, it’s for all of the wonderful people that I know that might need a reminder of just how great they are.
- Confidence is feeling beautiful without make-up on.
- Confidence is defining your own happiness and not letting someone define it for you.
- Confidence is admitting when you are wrong.
- Confidence is helping others succeed without feeling threatened by them.
- Confidence is having the courage to start your own business when everyone tells you that you can’t do it.
- Confidence is feeling beautiful wearing a size 6 or 16.
- Confidence is admitting on your own blog that you wear a size 10.
- Confidence is being willing to stand up for what you believe in regardless of what other people think.
- Confidence is wearing what you want to wear and not what the fashion magazines say is hot.
- Confidence is knowing the difference between confidence and arrogance.
- Confidence is never settling for second best. Ever.
- Confidence is knowing that sometimes it’s OK to compromise as long as it’s not your values.
- Confidence is never feeling too young or too old to dream.
- Confidence is loving yourself for who you are.
- Confidence is SEXY!
I’d love to hear how you define confidence and if you can relate to the list above. If not, let’s talk about how you can believe that you are great too.