Self Confidence

Self Confidence noun: [kon-fi-duh ns]

Belief in oneself and one's powers or abilities; self-confidence; self-reliance; assurance.

You NEED this. You NEED this. You NEED this. Should I say it one more time?

Being happy and accepting of who you are. Believing in yourself, your purpose, your message, your abilities, your truths, gives you the power to do achieve anything you set out to do.

When you have that authentic confidence, it radiates, and people are attracted to that. They feed off of it, trust it, and follow it. In my opinion it is the key to success.

Ask yourself do I believe in myself? Do I trust myself? Am I happy with myself? Do I accept myself? Hopefully you said yes. If not, ask why not? Where can you start to build that confidence? Are there fears and doubts? What are they and how can you start to face them? *Note: This may be a lot easier said than done. One step at a time, day by day.

One practice I suggest is to start to change your self talk. Keep it positive. "I am, fill in the blank." I guarantee that you are a beautiful soul inside and out. So shine bright my friend. Go be amazing!

- Jess

My personal story (short version)

I have been forced to work on my confidence more in the past few months than I ever have before.

As a teenager I struggled with self confidence. I had really bad acne. At one point I took antibiotics and used three different gels at different times throughout the day to help with my breakouts. I had glasses, braces, and what I considered a big nose. Eventually my hormones evened out, I switched to eating super clean, became super active, got a nose job, and started to learn how to accept myself for who I was and that I had a lot more to offer the world than my looks. I am talented and smart in so many ways. I learned to find confidence in those things. In my mid 20's I was figuring out who I was and what I wanted in life and out of my career. By 29 I thought I had this whole confidence thing down pat. Not quite.... I've been forced to re-visit parts of my life where I lack confidence, situations in which I lack confidence, (two words, fear and doubt) and learning that I never really dealt with my issues, but more so just pushed them aside and buried them super deep. I've been spending a lot of time finding out the true root of these feelings and finally working them out, and damn it feels good. I feel like a new person. So comfortable and ultra confident in my own skin ready to take on the world.

*Photo credit goes to Michelle Bennet.