one step at a time

Confidence. ‘What is it?’ I sometimes ask myself. I hear it through friends of mine. Few think they have it. And though I come to struggle with it myself, I often subscribe to that well known Nike tag line, ‘Just Do It’.

Confidence is a belief in oneself is it not? One may be confident in one thing and not another. Such as one may be confident in work but not with human relationships or vice versa. They say knowledge is power. I think knowledge is empowerment. For example, when I was growing up I was scared of everything, I was a small child and was bullied at school. In my teens I became ‘cool’ because I was an art student and I wore torn jeans and a plaid shirt! I didn’t have a lot of external confidence in my ability to produce great art as I wasn’t supported by my family. But I persevered to learn more about the world and still do. And it is the struggle to stand to your convictions that gain respect it has to and internally, in the mirror, one gained confidence through the support of peers and through doing and facing fears.

Confidence isn’t often a given, you have to face fears and hurdles and you can become confident through bravery. If you forget about the concept of ‘confidence’ for a while and just do it, you can achieve a leap of faith. Even the leap of anything for the first time, is an achievement of faith. The first step is always inherently the hardest but I think ultimately necessary to being enlightened.

In these difficult times, we have to be bold and go where one hasn’t gone before. Don’t regret and go forth. Life is short and you are now living, don’t waste it.

- J