On the road to happiness

If I have learnt anything in the first few months into 2015 is that to feel truly happy, I needed to accept myself for who I am.  Self confidence is something I needed to work on, in some ways I still do, however, I feel I have more belief in myself more now than I ever had. Knocking my Anxiety on the head may be a life barrier that in time I will fully overcome, but talking myself through how I feeling at the time, talking myself down, telling myself to keep calm and give myself a power boost (Normally telling myself to get my shit together) I have managed to control this to a certain point. Belief and confidence is the key. So I thought I would share some tips of what helps me to have belief in myself.

1# Learn from your past mistakes

Having your mind set to fail will mostly result in exactly that, failure. Rather than seeing your failures as just that, why not view them opportunity to learn from them. If you have gone the wrong way about something, remember how you could have dealt with that situation differently so next time you know how to go about it the right way. Such as Anxiety, when you place yourself in an environment that you know has made you feel anxious in the past DON'T think to yourself it is going to happen again. You're setting yourself up to not feel good in the first instance. Think positive about the environment, which you are with friends or family or that it is an opportunity for yourself. For example, if you are meeting your new boss for the first time. Think of all the positives about yourself and your confidence will shine through.

2# Replace the word can't to try or can

Like I mentioned about learning from your mistakes, you can't do that unless you try. I thought I would never get into a car because of my anxiety and being petrified of being in control of a vehicle. We shouldn't feel like we can't do something different because we might do it wrong, which is where most fear comes from. If you never try something new, we would never be able to progress.

3# Talk to the people around you

If you're having a hard time having belief in yourself, the biggest favor you can do for yourself is to talk to someone who cares about you. Talking to someone close to you not only helps you get things off your mind, but can help with your relationship with those around you. Those who are close to us will always try and bring out the good in you, help you see a better outlook and help you feel better about yourself. Highlight the good things about you rather than the negative. If people are negative about you, you don't need them in your life and are certainly not worth worrying about what they think.

4# Set yourself goals

I love to plan, but sticking to plans and meeting goals is not always easy. To want to do something you need to have the passion and drive to do so. Don't be too hasty with your goals, be realistic. Setting your goals too high can result in disappointment. Think of the small steps that can be made to meet that ultimate goal. Smaller steps are the much needing foundations to be able to achieve what you want. Don't sit and ponder about what you want to do and not do anything about it. Do it. Thinking about what you want to achieve will only make you feel worse for not even starting to work on your goal. Again, make sure they are reasonable goals. Don't expect too much of yourself in a short period of time. Mastering a skill or working towards that promotion is not going to happen overnight. Be realistic, have self belief and the rest will follow.

5# Something that you believe in

If something is very important to you, you know it needs to be done. Like getting that assignment in on Monday morning on time should be important to you. It is something that will help you achieve your goal in getting good grades and progress in the path you want to work for in the future. Even if you are having a bad day, no matter what you believe in don't stop believing in yourself and what you can achieve.

6# Think forward not backwards

Whether you think back to the past and reminisce about how good you used to be at a sport, painting or whatever it was that was once important to you or thinking about mistakes that you made in the past. No matter what it is, you should be thinking about your future. Making mistakes is something that I have already touched on, so think of how to do things better this time around. If you have given up something you used to love doing, think back to why you stopped playing football, there will be a reason behind it. If it was an unjustifiable reason, such as you thought back then that you wasn't good enough but still have the passion for it in your mind, why not try playing again. Get involved, it's worth a try Right? Put all your energy into things in the now and not worry about the past. It is something that you cannot change. Be your finest now

Until next time TTFN x0x