Live According to The Optimist Creed for Success

Self confidence is one of the keys to personal and professional success that is part of my Common Sense Success System.  I discuss it in several of my books: Straight Talk for Success, Your Success GPS and 42 Rules to Jumpstart your Professional Success.  You can become self confident by doing three things.  First, choose optimism.  Believe in your heart of hearts that today will be better than yesterday, and that tomorrow will be better than today.  Second, face your fears and act.  Procrastination and inaction feed fear and rob you of self confidence.  Action cures fear.  Third, surround yourself with positive people.  Don’t let the naysayers into your life.  Hang around with people who are positive about themselves, their careers and life in general.

Today, I’d like to focus on optimism – more specifically The Optimist Creed.  I have had a copy of The Optimist Creed since I competed in an Optimist International Oratory Contest when I was a sophomore in high school – way back in 1965.  The wisdom in The Optimist Creed has served me well over the years.  Periodically, I like to share it with readers of this blog.

The Optimist Creed

Promise Yourself…

• To be so strong that nothing can disturb your peace of mind.
• To talk health, happiness and prosperity to every person you meet.
• To make all of your friends feel that there is something in them.
• To look at the sunny side of everything and make your optimism come true.
• To think only of the best, to work only for the best, and to expect only the best.
• To be just as enthusiastic about the success of others as you are about your own.
• To forget the mistakes of the past and press on to the greater achievements of the future.
• To wear a cheerful countenance at all times and give every living creature you meet a smile.
• To give so much time to the improvement of yourself that you have not time to criticize others.
• To be too large for worry, too noble for anger, too strong for fear and too happy to permit the presence of trouble.

Living up to the 10 points of The Optimist Creed can be a tall order.  It seems that I fail to conduct myself in accordance with at least one of them almost every day.  Yet, I keep on trying.  The behaviors in The Optimist Creed are something to which I aspire.  I don’t always succeed in living according to these principles but I try.  And when I fail, I remember the seventh point…

To forget the mistakes of the past and press on to the greater achievements of the future.

Yesterday, I did a post in which The Ladders founder, Marc Cenedella, shared a story about blowing a job interview as he was finishing business school.  Marc made some great points about what to do when you screw up.  Check out the post.  I think you’ll agree.

The common sense point here is simple.  Successful people are self confident.  Self confident people are optimistic.  The Optimist Creed is the best guide to optimism and self confidence that I know.  I like it so much that I have created a .pdf of it.  This .pdf is suitable for framing and hanging in your workspace – just like me.  You can get your copy of The Optimist Creed by going to https://budbilanich.com/optimist/. I begin every day reading the words of The Optimist Creed.  I do my very best to conduct myself in a manner consistent with its principles.  If you take The Optimist Creed to heart and do your best to live it every day, you’ll become a more self confident – and successful person.

That’s my take on The Optimist Creed and self confidence.  What’s yours?  Please take a few minutes to leave a comment sharing your thoughts with us.  As always, thanks for reading.

Bud