Being Confident Enough To Grow

This past week, we learned about confidence in our learning and development course, and I am very glad this is the topic for the week I am writing my blog post. Growing up I was one of the least confident people you could meet. I was this big fat kid who had a speech impediment, was not "school smart" and was too shy to put myself into social situations. This carried on for years, however, I would see the rest of my family, a bunch of loud, carefree, Europeans that could not care less about what other people think. I would see them making a fool of themselves doing ridiculous things, but they looked happy. This created an environment where I could do the same and not feel judged. I eventually realized that if I was able to have that type of confidence with them, I could have it anywhere, I just need to put myself out there and apply myself. My life began to change, I would put myself in situations that made me uncomfortable, so I could learn how to become confident in myself. I began asking questions in class, talking to people that normally would not even look at me and even doing embarrassing things to take away the pressure of messing up. I went from being this super shy "not school smart" kid, to someone that got along with everyone, who got good grades, who was confident, just because I began to have a growth mindset. Though now I still lack confidence from time to time, I put myself into situations that make me uncomfortable so I am able to grow and become more confident in myself. I have the mindset, all I need is the experience, and since I started applying that to my life it has only gotten better.

I wrote that top paragraph the other day but something did not sit right with me. I portrayed myself as this super unconfident kid, and maybe at some point I was but I was confident enough to be able to grow. I put myself into all those situations to make myself confident, however I was already confident enough to put myself out there. Taking that first step into growing is the hardest thing you can do but if you do it, you already became the most confident version of you that you can be, the rest will come with time.  

Brought to you by: JacobG@OTU