I believe confidence is one of the most challenging feelings, and goals we face. How many of you know exactly what it feels like to lack self-confidence?
We see the confidence battle play out in public, where we want to show strength. And we see it play out within our inner selves, where we are desperate for a way to feel more competent and powerful.
Well, before I had a clue what the word confident even meant, mine started breaking down when I was nine years old. Many of you know my story. The fulfillment of my father’s teenage dream to live and work on the African continent became a massive adjustment for me when we left the country in 1962. Moving from an American public-school environment and integrating a private British school in Uganda, with a far more advanced curriculum, sent me spiraling into feelings of inadequacy. It took me well into my adult years to recover from the aftershocks.
Moving back to the States to attend Howard University presented another set of cultural gaps and on and on it went …
What’s your story? What time in your life did you ever feel you weren’t enough – that you were not capable of managing what was before you? Think about that for a minute. Some of you will have an immediate answer … for others of you, it may take a few moments to figure out where you were when it all began to unfold or fall apart.
When you tell your story, and explore who you really are; what your purpose is; and, how you can grow into what is yours to do – what does it reveal about your levels of confidence?
If you could increase your sense of what it means to stand powerfully in your own shoes, what difference might that make in your life?
Be and grow confidently!
