About a month into the semester, I read a magazine article about self-confidence. The confident lady said you need to believe you had it within you to be powerful.
Even though I was working on a plan to boost my wardrobe and my style, I decided on that Sunday before the next school week that I was going to believe that I could compete with the other students. I was going to believe I was smart enough to achieve my high grades again. I was going to believe that I was pretty enough to date whomever I wanted to date. And that I belonged in that school.
And that’s what I did before school, during school, and after school and it helped to ease my anxieties. About two weeks later, when an upperclassman stopped me in the stairwell and complimented me, it shocked me so bad that I toppled the books in my hand,
“Looking good lil bit.”
“What, what did you say?”
“Yeah, did you get a haircut or something? Something is different!”
“No, I didn’t get a haircut,” I said as I snactched my books and ran upstairs.
When I slammed down in my desk in the next class, I couldn’t help but smile in victory to myself. I was wearing the same clothes, had the same haircut, and was having the same struggles to catch up in class. The only thing that had changed was my belief in myself to excel.
What would change for you if you believed in yourself beyond your insecurities?