SELF-CONFIDENCE KEY TO SUCCESS

1) Introduction “He is an atheist who does not believe in himself. The old religions said that he was an atheist who did not believe in God. The new religions says that he is an atheist who does not believe in himself”. –Swami vivekananda Blaming others for anything and everything has become a chronic disease with us. Why should we expect someone ro come and help us? To depend on others is slavery. No good comes of blaming fate,karma or circumstances. Only a man of confidence can convert challenge into an opportunity. Confidence I not a gift of God. It has to be cultivated with self effort and diligence. Success stories of great people reveal the truth that in spite of their tremendous confidence they were not always successful. But the only difference between people and great ones is this: great people never consider defeats and failures as obstacles on the contrary, they turn them into stepping stones to success, whereas ordinary people get discouraged and stop moving further. Great people are aware of the power within themselves capable of overcoming huge obstacles and continuing their march till they reach their desired goal. The fool never begins a work for fear of failure the mediocre gives up in the middle, frustrated by obstruction; but the man of confidence never give, up inspite of failures, till the goal is reached”, says Bhartruhari,the poet.( Nitishatakam:27).

2) Self Confidence vs Ego: There is a very thin line dividing confidence and Ego. Most of the time we get confused and fail to decide whether we are on the right track or our Ego is dominating in the guise of confidence. When Ego dominates, every success turns into failure. One has to be very careful about it. How to distinguish between confidence and the ego? Here are some points to clarify this doubt.

a) a man of confidence says that he can do the work and others also can do it, whereas a man of Ego says that he can do it and nobody else can.

 b) a man of confidence always tries to encourage and help others in building their confidence whereas a man of ego tries to curb and discourage others when they try to come up in life.

 c) a man of confidence always attracts people. Even the weak feel confident and elevated in his presence and get inspiration in his company. Whereas an egoistic person creates repulsion in the minds of people who try to avoid him because of his boastful nature.

d) a man of confidence appreciates the success of others and shares his happiness with them. Whereas a man of ego discourages and humiliates others and feels jealous of the success of others.

e) there is a joy in working with people of confidence because they are always cheerful and can mix freely with everybody. In the presence of egoistic person even the man of confidence feel an inferiority complex. They feel nervous to work with them.

 f) a man of confidence always commands love and respect, whereas a man of Ego always demands and expects love and respect.

g) confident people are always successful in every field of life because they can conquer the hearts of all by putting the faith and confidence in others and receive all help and cooperation from colleagues and friends. A man of Ego always suffers setbacks and failures losing men and power because of his arrogant approach which adds only to his worries and tension.

3) Self Confidence vs Over confidence ; There are two type of people realistic and idealistic. Both are needed for the betterment of society. Idealistic people need to develop a little practical wisdom to execute there ideas according to changing circumstances and should be a little liberal to accept slight modifications and adjustment in the practical field to work out their plans successfully. But if they stick to their ideology without realising practical difficulties if they never try to listen to their practical experience and working skills and are unwilling to accept any advice from anybody they can be called over confident people. For example who has never got into a plane trying to occupy the seat of a pilot or one who has never held a gun is ready to go to the battlefield,or a person terribly afraid of water trying to cross ocean by swimming. What happened to the great Warrior Abhimanyu tho a courageous, heroic and bold but a bit over confident. He knew how to enter into the labyrinth (padmavyuha) but did not know how to come out of it. His overconfidence cost him his life. Duryodhan also committed the same mistake. Overconfident Duryodhan underestimated the strength of his opponents and lost everything. Again, there are people with tremendous capabilities to perform wonders but who are not aware of their strength. They always undermine their ability and try to avoid the task. They all they need is a little motivation, reminder and inspiration. The moment you awaken that giant within them they will do wonders. Mahavir Hanuman had all power and strength within him to cross the ocean but he was not aware of that. When jambuvan reminded him of his strength his confidence was awakened and he reached Ceylon jumping across the ocean in search of mother Sita. In spite of hard work and sound preparation, why are some student not able to succeed in examinations? Lack of self confidence. The movement the enter the examination hall, the demon of fear robs them of self confidence and make them commit mistakes. All these things happened due to fair of examination. What to do in such a situation? Make your mind come and tranquil. Give positive suggestion to your mind such as- the question paper is very easy, I know all the answer very well, I am not going to make even a single mistake. I am sure that I will get a very good rank this time. Then pray to God for two-minute to help you in concentrating your mind on the answers. Read all the questions carefully understand the properly and with full confidence start writing my answers and you will succeed. Same method can be applied before commencing any task if you feel nervous and diffident. Even Swami Vivekananda renounced as orator felt nervous before he address a gathering of about 7 thousand distinguished, critical and highly intellectual audience during the Chicago parliament of religions in 1893. In his words, “Of course my heart was fluttering and my tongue nearly dried up; I was so nervous, and could not venture to speak in the morning. I bowed down to Devi Saraswati and stepped up and made a short speech”. HOW TO BUILD CONFIDENCE How do great people achieve success in life? They cultivate certain qualities in order to awaken the hidden confidence within themselves. Why not we also give it a try if we wish to be great and successful in life?

1)conviction So very step in climbing the ladder of self confidence is firm conviction about Once on ability. People are afraid of accepting challenges and responsibilities because it out their capacity to perform well the underestimate themselves and lose wonderful opportunities in life. “Great convictions are the mother of great Deeds”.

 2) Hard work Nothing great can come unless we work for it. Dreams can never become a reality without hard work. Fortune approaches him who is industrious. It is a weak minded who says fate gives. No acts are done by mere desires, they are done only by diligence. The dear does not enter the mouth of a sleeping lion. Men obtain the desired fruit by personal effort while those wanting in manliness speak of destiny only. Neither the lazy North those who depends only on destiny fulfill their objective. Therefore want should persist in self effort by all means.

 3)will power We are experts in taking vows and breaking them within no time. It is easy to take vows but difficult to keep them up. Weak Minds always searches for excuses. The mind is fickle and restless by nature, always ready to compromise and vacillate. Those who possess strong will and are determine to achieve great things never listen to their minds. They are masters of their minds . They make their minds work for them to achieve higher things in life.

4)Self respect It is a well known fact that man of hard work knowledge, wisdom and perfection are always honoured and respected everywhere where is the ignorant, inefficient, lazy and dull people always face humiliation and insult. There are people who in spite of humiliated insulted warned several times issued memos scolded for their blunders and even punish never try to improve themselves. They are people with a thick skin. They suffer from all kinds of physical and mental tortures but don’t want to change that attitude due to lack of self confidence. But sensitive people consider humiliation worse than death and always try to improve in order to protect their honour and self respect. Love for dignity and Honour helps them to manifest hidden confidence within themselves and they rise to the occasion and prove their meetle by accepting challenges in life.

 5)Long preparation It’s not enough to manage things but it is important to manage them well. Great things happened not out of Magic or miracle but out of systematic preparation. Those who do not prepare well and try to manage thing haphazardly always meet with embarrassment and utter failure. Most of the people thinking about goals but do not pay attention to the minute details which will help them to achieve it.

 6) Communication Many have achieved success only through the power of perfect communication. There are people who can be compared with a huge reside your of knowledge and information but not always affected due to lack of the communicative ability. If you speak even of you words with confidence that will impress people and if you can impress people by your effective communication it will boost your confidence. Many people talk some are able to express but only a few can convey their ideas in a effective manner. Arguments make give you confidence But may never lead to success. Convincing people through loving,affectionate, polite and pleasant language not only gives you confidence but leads to success. You may not be highly qualified or scholars, still you find a place in the hearts of many. The power of your magic words will keep the Listener spellbound.

 7)Commitment Commitment and confidence always go together. The moment we forget our commitment to a particular cause we lose weight in ourselves and try to justify our weaknesses. How many people remember that they are citizens of free India and are committed to serve the cause of the nation? very few indeed. You can count them on the tips of your fingers. Mahatma Gandhi could have settled down in South Africa, but his commitment to his country forced him to return. Though the people did not believe in him in the beginning, he was confident that he could win freedom for India through the power of non violence.

 8)Definite goal Many youngsters are not very clear about their goal in life. You can’t begin your journey unless you are clear about your destination. You cannot proceed even a step unless you decide where you want to go. A clear cut goal and a one-pointed concentration alone help us to manifest tremendous confidence. We want to do many things simultaneously. Without singular devotion to the ideal, no great things can be achieved. Take up one idea, make that one Idea your life, think of it, dream of it, live on that Idea. Let the brain, muscles, nerves, every part of your body be full of that Idea and just leave every other idea alone. This is the way to success.

 9) concentration God has given a unique instrument called the mind to all living beings including animals. But he bestowed his special Grace on your human beings in the form of freedom. Animal are controlled by nature, human beings are capable of conquering nature. This conquest is possible only through the power of concentration. Concentration leads to perfection, perfection to confidence, confidence to success and success finally leads to happiness. Concentrated mind is a perfect instrument for achieving success in every walk of life. Concentration is the essence of all knowledge; nothing can be done without it. Ninety percent of thought force is wasted by ordinary human being, and therefore he is constantly committing blunders ;the trained man or mind never makes a mistake.

By-