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.
As I’ve mentioned many times in the past, optimism is the foundation of self confidence. Following the advice in The Optimist Creed is a wonderful way to become more optimistic – and successful. Today I’d like to focus on point 6 of The Optimist Creed. If you want a copy of The Optimist Creed that you can frame and hang in your office go to https://budbilanich.com/optimist.
Point 6 of The Optimist Creed says…
“Promise yourself to be just as enthusiastic about the success of others as you are about your own.”
Yesterday I did a post on the importance of trust and an abundance mentality in building strong, lasting, mutually beneficial relationships. Point 6 of The Optimist Creed captures the essence of an abundance mentality quite nicely. Being enthusiastic about the success of others demonstrates that you engage with the world from an abundance, not scarcity mentality. It demonstrates that you realize that there is enough success to go around – that someone else’s success in no way diminishes yours, or your ability to succeed.
I write books on success. So do a lot of other people. When someone writes a great book on success – Gary Vaynerchuk’s Crush It, Cathie Black’s Basic Black, Cynthia Brian’s Be the STAR You Are, Steve Ventura’s Work Right and John Wooden’s A Game Plan for Life come to mind immediately – I write about it on this blog. I do everything I can to get as many people to read the books I like, because these books will help them create the successful lives and careers they want and deserve, but because in a small way, I can help other authors who are writing about things that interest me.
Two of the authors I mentioned above, Cathie Black and John Wooden, don’t need my help. They are well established, successful people. Gary, Cynthia and Steve are not as well known, but they have some great things to say; and I want other people to hear their ideas. I also want to help them succeed.
Some people might say that I am helping the competition. I don’t see it that way. People who read on self help or success book are likely to read several. I come from an abundance mentality. When Gary, Cathie, Cynthia, Steve and John succeed in getting their message out, their readers will be hungry for more information – and I might just sell a few more books. Or maybe I won’t. That’s OK too. My audience will find me.
That’s why I’m a big believer in point 6 of The Optimist Creed. “Promise yourself to be just as enthusiastic about the success of others as you are about your own.” I believe that success is catchy. If I hang around (in person and on this blog) with other people who are successful, I will develop the self confidence that will help me become successful in helping others to succeed. And, that’s what it’s all about.
The common sense point here is simple. Successful people are self confident. Self confident people are optimistic. The Optimist Creed offers great advice on how to become more optimistic. Point 6 tells us to be enthusiastic about the success of others. This is great advice. When you are enthusiastic about the success of others, you come from an abundance mentality. An abundance mentality helps you realize that there is more than enough success to go around. You can succeed. I can succeed. Everybody else can succeed. Success is not a fixed pie – it can expand to accommodate everyone who is willing to put in the time and effort to get there.
That’s my take on how an abundance mentality can help build your self confidence and help you succeed in your life and career. What’s yours? Please take a few minutes to leave a comment sharing your thoughts with us. As always, thanks for reading.
Bud
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