Confidence and Potential: Unlocking Your True Self

In recent years, I've noticed a significant lack of confidence among the children and youth in our dance programs. Building skills to develop confidence is crucial for reaching our full potential. Confidence is the key to unlocking and realizing one’s potential, and I am dedicated to finding ways to support young people in increasing their confidence and reaching their fullest potential.

As Darren Hardy wisely said, “Before you have confidence, you must try. You must jump in, fumble, fail, and be awkward. But have faith. Failure becomes success. Success becomes confidence.”

Self-confidence is one of the most influential motivators and regulators of behavior in our everyday lives. Your perception of your abilities—your self-confidence—is the biggest determining factor for achievement. It influences the goals you set, the energy you focus on them, your ability to achieve them, and the persistence you apply to overcome obstacles.

The #1 reason people never fulfill their potential isn’t a lack of intelligence, opportunity, or resources, but a lack of belief in themselves. This lack of self-confidence prevents many from realizing their true potential.
How to Gain ConfidenceConfidence is developed and grown. Think of it like a garden: you need to grow it, maintain it, weed it, water it, fertilize it, and protect it from pests. Sometimes, you need to weed, thin out, clear, and make way for new skills. Protect, feed, and nurture your mind and environment with the right input and associations.

Just like a garden, potential must be cultivated. It starts with a seed of belief and is nurtured through confidence. As you grow in confidence, you begin to see and reach your potential.

Five Steps to Build Self-Confidence

• ACT
  • Take action; it takes commitment and a bit of courage to venture into the unknown. Take a chance and go through the fear. Action begins the process and activates the change of growth. Before you have confidence, act by stepping into the unknown, even if it’s a bit scary. Doing hard things makes us grow. By stepping into it, you’ll quickly realize the fear is illusionary. Don’t wait, do it now.
• SKILLS
  • Just do it! When you first begin, you might not be good at it. You may actually suck! Expect it, allow for it, and understand that anything new is going to be hard before it gets better. Only by continuing can you develop your skills. Skills will give you confidence. Through repeated action, you develop momentum and a tendency for action. When in doubt—ACT! Why is it good to suck? Because ‘SUC’ is at the beginning of Success—just begin and keep working on it.​​

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• RESULT
  • Success precedes confidence; you don’t wait for confidence and then get successful. You are confident because of your evidence of success, not the other way around. Imagine yourself succeeding, not being paralyzed by dwelling on how far you need to go. Focus on just the first step, taking one step at a time—this way you are on your way to gaining confidence. The consistent accumulation of small steps will help you see the possibilities, your potential, and ultimately, success!
• CONFIDENCE
  • Action + Skills = Results resulting in developing Confidence! Confidence is not stagnant; it shifts and goes up and down—fluid—day by day, moment by moment. That is why you need the fifth step!
• REINFORCE
  • Confidence begins as a belief in your potential and abilities. Notice and celebrate each win, no matter how small. Noticing your progress and success is the best way to retrain your confidence—look for the positive and train your mind to win. Don’t wait for what you want. That will only create more want. Just go for it!!

Confidence and Potential: A Symbiotic RelationshipAs you build confidence through these steps, you start to see glimpses of your potential. Each small success reinforces your belief in yourself, revealing more of your potential. Confidence and potential grow together, each fueling the other. By intertwining the concepts of confidence and potential, you highlight how they are interconnected and how one feeds into the other. This approach helps in building confidence, which is essential for unlocking and achieving your true potential.

Resources: Darren Hardy, Brené Brown, Barbara A. Lewis
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Celebrate the possibilities of growth in confidence, potential, and the joy of soaring! Starting with one small win will lead to other wins and soon you will have traction to continue to build on your success.


Jane