Lesson in Confidence

I seriously lack self-confidence. Everything that goes wrong makes me feel awful, sad, guilty, etc. My insecurity causes trouble in my work and my relationships. My parents and my sister are also insecure so, I don't have to look far to see where I got it. If I could be confident, that would cause all my problems to disappear, and there will be more happy feelings!

So, the first step in being confident is pretending to be confident! So, according to this website, Nerd Fitness (hilarious!!!), there are 5 things to do to appear confident. And, according to me, confidence will follow!

1. Improve your posture (yes, I really do need to work on this!)
2. Slow down, i.e. talk slower 
3. Smile (this is true. Smiling improves any situation. It's not just the mouth, but you have to bring up your eyebrows, let your face, ears even, move to the smile! Sounds weird, but after focusing on your muscles, you'll know what I'm talking about!)
4. Win the staring contest, i.e. look into the person's eyes - yes this is also something I need to work on. I look up, down, left, right, glance at their eyes, when I talk, and look at their mouth when they speak. It's so weird focusing on their eyes. Thinking about it as a game helps! I like this line "you’ll quickly learn that everybody else is nervous as hell too and will quickly look away given enough time." Hahaha!
5. Get out of your head, that is, don't over-analyze, don't over-think, don't wait it out. Get the awkward out right away, it's the worst part anyway. Speaking of which, that's what I was avoiding as I write this... Like he says, "Part of building confidence is taking risks and having the ability (and the guts) to do stuff that scares you."

And finally Don’t change what you are, just learn to be more confident in who you are.

Love, K