Saturday 23 January 2016

Self-Confidence: Fake It, Until You Make It

Self-Confidence:  Being confident in oneself, one's choices or the path one has chosen to follow (my own interpretation)

I often think people see me as being confident but truth be told I often feel like " I am faking it, until I make it".  I think this is true for many people.  I am generally a chatty person, extraverted to the naked eye, but when it comes to speaking in front of large crowds, other then little children, I get really nervous.  I can't sleep the night before, I run over the things I need to say and how to say them over and over in my head, my hands get sweaty (I try not to shake peoples hands), etc.  In order to calm myself, I plan my outfits in order to at least look the part of a self-confident, know what I am doing, professional.  This week I was presenting to a room of fifty individuals that I respect immensely, a room of Kindergarten teachers.  Kindergarten teachers, and all teachers,  have a critical role in setting our youngest learners, and their families, for success and in the academic world.  I could go on forever but I will leave that for another time.  Needless to say I wanted to provide them with a worthwhile day of networking, learning and planning.   I was nervous to stand in front of this group and so this is what I wore to help me a least look self-confident.  :) 


4 comments:

  1. Now this is going to sound dumb, but on The Walking Dead this fall there was a scene where a mother said to her son "pretend you are a brave person" and it really resonated with me. I have adopted that phrase just the way you adopted your "fake it until you make it." There have been a handful of times since watching that episode that I have had to give myself a pep talk on pretending to be confident or comfortable in certain situations. And I have been surprised how well it works. I am really good at acting, apparently!

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    1. Ha, ha, that is funny. I agree with that mother and I have said similar things to the girls. Obviously we don't want to walk around pretending all the time, but at times we have to just acknowledge how we feel, then lift our heads up and put a smile on our face. Over time we either start to feel better or we end up having to go back to the initial feelings to deal with them in a different and more constructive way.

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