I want to do something, but I don’t feel ready.
I want to do something, but I feel criticized by my environment.
I want to do something, but I want it to be perfect before getting started.
What do these statements have in common?
They’ve everything to do with confidence.
I’ve spoken about confidence in the past and shared the secrets to building confidence, but today we’ll dive even deeper.
I’ll take you through the principles of the Confidence Manifesto along with 5 actions on how you can get started doing the things you want to do even though you don’t feel ready.
After reading this, you’re going to absolutely crush it!
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The Confidence Manifesto: 5 principles
Principle #1: Take ownership
Don’t let your life depend on other people. You’re 100% responsible for your own happiness and success. It’s about taking radical responsibility and not holding on to the hope that other people will make you happy.
You’re the boss and in charge of fixing whatever needs fixing in your life.
Principle #2: Learn how to say no
Take a look at your calendar. Take a look at your life, for that matter. Is it filled with stuff you don’t want to do? It’s time for you to learn how to say no.
Learning to say no is one of the best things I’ve ever taught myself. It’s crucial to know when and when not to be available to build the life and business of your dreams.
Principle #3: State your wants and needs
Often, we expect other people to know what we want and need while we haven’t yet quite figured it out ourselves. Still, we expect others to know.
How’s that even fair?
Again, remember what we talked about earlier: take ownership. Your happiness is your responsibility.
Principle #4: Forgive yourself
The biggest no-go for building confidence is to hold a grudge against yourself. This applies whether we talk about binge eating, dating the wrong guy or woman, making promises to yourself, or whatever you’re struggling with.
Forgive yourself for things like these. You can’t fast forward to a positive place in your life if you’re in a negative spot. Find a neutral place to forgive yourself.
Maybe you're also interested in this: How to Develop the Confidence to Do The Jobs You Really Want – Not The Jobs You Have to Take.
Principle #5: Can’t pour from an empty cup
If you’ve been following me for a while, you know I talk a lot about self-care. I haven’t always been the best at it. At a point in my life, my cup only had a few drops in it, and it drained me. I didn’t have any fuel to achieve the things I wanted.
That changed once I realized one thing. You can’t take care of others or your business if you’re not taking care of yourself.
The Confidence Manifesto is my go-to whenever I need to be reminded of my own superpower. Memorize the 5 principles for yourself or put them in a note on your phone to pull them up whenever you’re at a crossroad.
Boost your confidence
Confidence is a layered creature, and there’s so much to say about this topic, but to keep it short and sweet for now, I want to share 5 actions you can start practicing to boost your confidence and get going.
Action #1: Stop caring about what others think
My family doesn’t believe this is right for me.
My boyfriend doesn’t understand what I’m doing.
My friends think it’s stupid I’m going to spend money on this.
Stop right there! Stop caring about what other people think. They don’t have your vision.
Most successful people in the world didn’t get to where they are today because other people believed in them. They got there despite other people not believing in them. Keep this in mind when you find yourself doubting.
Remember, you can’t let your success depend on what other people think. Like the Confidence Manifesto states, take 100% ownership and state your wants and needs.
What I like to do is to take a moment to recognize what I want and need. You can do the same to really manifest your wants and needs.
Action #2: Overcome fear of failure
Fear of failure is a luxury problem (for adults).
Often, we’re scared of new things, like starting a business or a new job, because we fear we’ll fail.
If you find yourself thinking like this, take a moment to consider the worst-case scenario, and you’ll realize it’s not that bad.
For instance, if you start a business, make less money and potentially fail, would you end up in the gutter without clothes and food? Probably not! If you fail, you’ll end up where you’re now, and the only thing that will hurt or be slightly bruised is your ego.
Therefore, take ownership of the situation like the Confidence Manifesto Principle #1 states.
I like to say: Either you win, or you learn. It’s not failing if you can learn. Do yourself a favor and fail at least once every day. I challenge you!
Action #3: Stop comparing yourself to others
The best way to stop comparing yourself to others is to
- Mute them.
- Unfollow them.
- Avoid interactions with them.
If you’re comparing yourself to a friend, change your perspective and look at the qualities you admire in your friend. Then tell yourself: If he or she can do it, so can I.
Remember, I talked about learning how to say no earlier (The Confidence Manifesto Principle #2)?
This has everything to do with saying no…to yourself. Say no to screwing yourself over and over again by comparing yourself to others. Stop giving others access to your energy like this.
Action #4: Focus on your needs vs. nice-to-haves
If you feel you need something right now, always choose that over something that’s nice to have later on.
For instance, let’s say you have 5 books at home. You haven’t read them, so you will not buy another one till you’ve read all 5. But what if you actually need that 6th book right now to level up your business or improve your health and well-being?
Recognize what you need, and then act on it to fill your needs. It applies to anything in life. Always ask for help if you need help. It all comes down to stating your wants and needs.
Action #5: Don’t let past failures define you
If you’ve failed in the past, it doesn’t mean you’re going to fail again. Forgive yourself and be proud that you’re trying something new and different.
Not everyone has the guts to do that because they typically forget one thing: Your past failures don’t tell jack shit about you.
The best way forward is to follow The Confidence Manifesto Principle #4, forgive yourself. Therefore, remember to:
Forgive yourself.
Hug yourself.
Try again.
Fail again.
Try again.
Fail again.
Try again.
Repeat.
The truth is, you’re never going to be ready. But what you can do is craft your mindset to get the results you want by taking the actions of the person you want to be.
I believe in you. Now, it’s your turn to believe in yourself!
Watch this episode on YouTube or listen via iTunes, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts, and search for episode 51 of The FastForwardAmy Show.
To become the most confident version of yourself, I've created a more elaborate version of the Confidence Manifesto, which provides you with the strategies you need to build your confidence.
Let me know what you think by tagging me in your Instagram stories @fastforwardamy.
PS Are you thinking, after reading this article, that you’d love some actual coaching from me and my team? Then it’s your lucky day because I’m hosting my Business Summer School again this year.
I hosted it last year and more than 3000 people attended. We talked about mindset, taking fast action, creating a profitable product suite, marketing, launching and basically all of the good stuff.
Do you feel like joining? Go take a look at fastforwardamy.com/bus and register for my Business Summer School of 2023!
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