Are you in a place wherein you feel under-confident to take up what you would like to? Have you been in a place wherein you have lost your confidence due to the situations in your life?

If you are in that position currently, I have been there too. I know what it feels like to feel inferior watching the talents of other people and the question “Will I ever be able to reach there?”. It is certainly one of the toughest phases in anyone’s life. I remember being in that position during the final year of my graduation that I was pursuing and post that. It was a situation that the marketing activities of the company I was associated with then and grew myself to become a presenter with had to be stopped and the seminars that I frequented as the presenter had paused. I had grown myself from someone not being able to speak for a minute in front of my class to take the presentations for 1 hour in front of strangers.

Now, with those seminars being discontinued, I slid down in my confidence so much so that, in a conversation with my friend who was standing right across, he had to tell me “Speak louder, I’m not able to hear you”. I accept that, then, I was so dumb that I thought that I had an issue in my throat. But when I look back today, I realize that it was low confidence. But I did fight back and a brilliant story has gotten unfolded over the last 8 years.

What helped me get better again if I have to summarize, below are those points:

Support Group:




When you are in the process of growing yourself and developing your confidence, the last thing you would want is the discouragement from the people around you. Hence, choose to be with a group of people who are not only Supportive but Think & Act progressively and they become your Inspiration to work hard on yourself. The people you could look up to for their dedication at work, their Never Give Up Attitude, their Seriousness towards their Goals, and other Qualities that you could learn and inculcate in the pursuit of getting better at what you desire to take up.

I did the same at the onset of my career. I surrounded myself with the kind of people who encouraged me at every step.

Have a Mentor:

This is something I have been fortunate about in my Life that I have a Mentor who is guiding me at every step of my life. I urge you, the reader, to do the same. Find someone in your circle or someone who has excelled in the field that you want to take up. Connect to them and request them if they could mentor you.


Choose a Mentor wisely as they form an integral part of your life and guide you. Choose someone who is genuinely interested in your life and understands you as a person and your Goal to be able to guide you. If you are fortunate to find a great Mentor like the way I found, be a Good Mentee to them. :)

Accept Yourself:

I am a believer of the phrase that our Growth starts on the day we learn to Accept Ourselves. It might not be easy to do so. At a point in time in my life, when I had shifted to Bangalore for better growth in my life, I’ll be honest I had felt completely inferior after meeting some amazing set of people and I remember having a feeling “Will I ever be able to match up to them?”. Those feelings are not wrong and are natural but that is when there was a Turning Point in my Life when I realized that it is important that I accepted myself as I was.


It is fine if you might not be fluent at English as others, it is fine if you are not intellectually exposed as others, it is fine if you have lost the confidence due to the hardships that you had to face in your life, it is fine if you didn’t know to do many things as the others could, it is fine if you are not as Talented as others are. But the question is Can you accept yourself as you are and kill the inferiority complex? If Yes, then ask yourself “Am I ready to work hard?” If this is a ‘Yes’ too; you are unstoppable post this.

Start from Zero & Take small steps:



Once you have Accepted Yourself, be fine to start from a Zero. Start from the very beginning! That’s what I did. I started with something as basic as learning 5 new English words per day. Yes! I started learning new words and practice them by using it during the day. I took up any and every activity that could help me grow and believed in giving my best in everything that I did.

I started getting better over a period of time. I could take up tasks that were bigger than I was initially able to. I got even better and could take up more. There is no end to how much you can grow if you have the fire burning inside you even after you feel that you have grown a lot. I have the fire, do you?

Consistency:

Building consistency in growing yourself to become what you have set out for is the only way with which you could grow yourself. Do it every day, make it a ritual to execute those activities no matter what. Any amount of complacency with some progress will kill the momentum that had gotten built over this period and you might have to start all over again or you get stagnant at the place where you are today.

Ever wondered why do many people, who had started with a lot of Enthusiasm not reach the heights of success they could have? Welcome to the answer. Complacency kills the momentum completely and there is no motivation left to restart with the same force as they did initially.

Practice:


Once you have built the Consistency in learning, the next step is to practice. Practice all that you have learned. It could be to speak fluent English, it could be to be able to speak on Stage, it could be writing a program, it could be to design, it could be to sing, it could be to dance, it could be to Write or any aspect you have set out for, practice doing it. Though you might not be anywhere close to what you dream to be, still do it. Only with Practice, you can get better each time.

Grab Opportunities:

You don’t have to become an expert before you start grabbing opportunities in the field that you have chosen to foray into. It is only when you have grabbed the Opportunity and showcased your Talent once; it is when you will be given more opportunities. Prepare well when you have gotten a chance to Write, Sing, Speak on Stage, Code a program, or anything you wanted to do. The same happened to me. The first time I had gotten a chance to speak on the Stage was for a Minute, I grabbed it and delivered my best in that minute; the next chance was for 15 mins and grabbed it too and delivered my best. The future unfolded in a much bigger way and with greater opportunities than I could imagine at the onset.



Meet People/Read Biographies:

When we are on a pursuit to become somebody, we are in a constant need of Motivation because there are many hardships that we face on a day-to-day basis. It is when the stories of people who have achieved success in the field you have ventured into or even otherwise; through the Biographies or through meeting them (if you get a chance) would be something that keeps us going.

It is when we are introduced to the stories of anyone successful in any field, it is then we get to know that they haven’t been spared of the hardships too and we aren’t the only one facing it. Rather, they have faced and successfully faced the hardships that would be beyond our imagination and it is what makes them what they are. Hence, meeting those people or reading the Inspirational stories in the growing years of our lives becomes very pivotal.

Do More of it:

Once you have got the basic hang of the nuances of the Field that you want to foray into, the only way to grow from there is repeatedly doing it as many times as possible. You have to be ruthless and unstoppable in figuring out how you could more of it in the shortest amount of time. If you have a dream of becoming a Speaker, you can address the first set of 1000 people in a month or take a year to do so. It would not only delay your success but over a period of time, it will dwindle the confidence that you had built. From someone who had to learn new words in English to someone who had spoken on stage for a minute, to someone who spoke for 15 mins to someone who has ended up being a Host for more than 200 Conferences, this journey of 8 years was only possible because I was fortunate to have been guided. But this is not the end, rather, this is just the beginning of the journey I have set out for. Wishing you the best from my side and hope that these points from my experience can add some value in your Life and help you speed up the growth in your Life.