How To Be Confident

Where Can You Get Confidence?

In your tool chest of items that will allow you to develop yourself personally, confidence is one of the most important tools. With confidence, you will be able to tackle the challenges that come your way, but the thing is, you can’t just get confidence. You need to work for confidence and it is not always easy. Sometimes you may not think confidence is coming, but any doubt you feel is hurting your confidence. You need to get rid of doubt because it is what is going to hold you back. Confidence cannot exist if you have doubt, and these are the ways you not only get rid of doubt, but increase your confidence.

1. Make sure the people around you give you confidence. By having people who believe in you, you will begin to believe in yourself. They will tell you the things you are doing right, things you need to improve on, but most of all they will tell you exactly what you need to hear. That is why having a good group around you can give you confidence.

2. Confidence comes from pushing yourself to try new things. One of the ways you can do that is to get out of your typical comfort zone. If you don’t usually go out at night, start going out at night and pushing yourself to talk to people. If you are shy, be outgoing, if you are outgoing, be shy. Whatever you have to do to make things different, and to push yourself, will give you confidence when you need it.

3. Get inspiration from others. There are many people who have gone through bettering themselves, and they have a story to tell. Go to your local library and get biographies on individuals that you admire. Read about their challenges and how they overcame them. This will help give you confidence because you will see that others have gone through the exact same thing and achieved great success.

4. Talk to yourself whenever you begin to have doubts. Go to a mirror and talk to yourself, have conversations with yourself and compliment who you are. This may seem like an odd thing to do but you know yourself, you trust yourself and you will be able to push up your confidence just by talking to yourself. It is a very good technique that is used by actors, politicians, generals and more because you are speaking directly to yourself and making yourself confident. It works, trust us.

Being confident is very important in anything you do. When you are confident, you will not doubt your decisions and your confidence will help others believe in you. That then allows you to build up your confidence even more. Confidence is your best friend when you are bettering yourself, and it will keep you pushing yourself to become a better person. All you have to do to be confident is to use these tips and begin to change your life today.

To streamline and minimize blog maintenance, I will be discontinuing maintaining the Simplepersonaldevelopment.com website (however, I will still hold the domain). I will gradually move all articles from this site to Ahmed Dawn Dot Com. This article originally published on the above website on April 10, 2011

Avoid Making Your Mortgage A Wasteful Borrowing

Do Not Take Out The First Decent Loan You Are Offered

First Published Date : August 26, 2009 ADawnJournal.com

The fact that it is nigh-on impossible for most people to buy a house without borrowing at least some of the cost these days has hardened some of us to the question of debt. It would not be wrong to say that a large amount of the consumer debt which is strangling companies and individuals right now is a result of people saying “Well, we are all in debt these days anyway – what harm will it do to add a little bit more?”. We have become hardened to debt – and even those of us who seek to avoid debt altogether are conscious that this has happened. Just for clarification, becoming hardened to debt does not mean ignoring it altogether. Rather, it means that we accept it will exist and we try to live the best way we can while recognising the fact.

One consequence of becoming hardened to debt as a society is that there has been a certain amount of slippage where wastefulness is concerned. Being ready to accept debt – as we all must be, eventually – should not mean being wasteful. If we are debt conscious, we can minimise the damage done to our finances by debt. If we are wasteful, we run the risk of doing something which is essentially the equivalent of accepting that there will always be a little bit of mess in our house, and inviting a family of horses to live in our kitchen in recognition of the fact. Yes, you can live with debt. No, you cannot live indefinitely with several debts getting in the way of everything you do and making a mess of things.

It doesn’t even need to be the case that you regularly miss loan payments for you to qualify as wasteful – although the amount of extra cash you will need to pay to make up for that certainly qualifies. Another wasteful thing to do as regards credit accounts is to take out the first decent loan you are offered without doing a little bit of shopping around first. There are so many banks out there who offer mortgages, and other institutions besides who will loan money for the purpose of buying a house. Even when people take into account that the bank will own a stake in the house for the duration of the loan account, they are often still all too happy to settle for a “decent” mortgage, when a little bit of time spent researching would have freed them up to the tune of hundreds of dollars per month.

Being wasteful costs us a lot of money when we are young, and some people never really learn the lesson. Sure, it’s fun to let go every so often, but that’s what ball games, clubs and friends are for. A mortgage shouldn’t be a case of “yeah, this will do!”. It needs to be a matter of “yes, this is the right one”. You’ll be paying it off for a quarter of a century or more, most likely, so it requires some attention.

Time to Take It Slow

Personal Development and Taking It Slow

When you decide to start betting yourself through personal development, one of the first things you need to do is take a breath. The world is very fast paced and that leaves a lot of people scrambling to keep up. It can be difficult because people do not know what to do with a world that moves by like a speeding freeway. We become stressed, confused and depressed. There is an old saying that tells people to stop and smell the roses, and that is something you need to do when you are involved in personal development. You need to take the time to slow things down and just enjoy the time around you.

We too often feel that everything moves fast and therefore we must move fast, and if you do not want to move fast you can become depressed. Depression is a nail in the coffin of personal development, and you need to find a way to beat it. That comes from practicing the concept of Carpe Diem, which is Latin for Seize the Day. You want to seize the day because by doing that, you better yourself. This is why people create goals and bucket lists, they want to be able to seize the time they have and better who they are. They want to reach the end of their life knowing that they have done all that they can and are better for it.

How does this come into taking it slow? Well if you do not appreciate life and the time you have, you cannot seize the day. You do not want to rush through life because you will not spend the time you want to better yourself. If every day is about going to work, coming home and working, then going to work the next day, how do you have time to take it slow? Do you want to better yourself by learning a new skill? Well, then you should take the time to learn to do something like cooking. If you only buy microwave food because you are thinking you are too busy, you are not doing yourself any favours.

Look at something like Tai Chi, it is about moving slow and becoming one with your spirituality. There is no rushing; it is the joy of the movement. People like to go out on the water but they go out on motorboats rather than canoes. By taking a canoe you have more time to reflect on the quiet around you. Taking it slow allows you to look inward at who you are and to take the time to better yourself. We would all like to have infinite time but that is not going to happen, so instead you need to take it slow so you can make time for what matters in your personal development. Rushing through your life is just getting you to the end sooner, and that is something you are not going to want. Breath, relax and take it slow.

To streamline and minimize blog maintenance, I will be discontinuing maintaining the Simplepersonaldevelopment.com website (however, I will still hold the domain). I will gradually move all articles from this site to Ahmed Dawn Dot Com. This article originally published on the above website on Mar 13, 2011

Was The Global Financial Crisis a Blessing in Disguise?

Global Financial Crisis Is A Demonstrable Wake-Up Call To The World

First Published: August 28, 2009 ADawnJournal.com

It may not be a universally popular opinion, but there are certainly more than a few people who will tell you with a straight face that the global financial crisis had to come when it did, and moreover that it was the best thing that could have happened at the time. Most of these people will generally whisper the suggestion quietly rather than say it loud enough for a recently-unemployed eavesdropper to hear, but is there any chance that they actually have a point? Could we come out of the crisis stronger as a world, as nations and as people?

What cannot be denied is that we who live in countries where the mass media have a tendency towards hyperbole probably took longer to accept that the crisis was a very real fact. As has also recently been evidenced by the swine flu pandemic, there is a tendency after a while for people to become fundamentally skeptical about anything that they have not seen for themselves. Even now in more than one nation, there are people saying that the pandemic was exaggerated because comparatively few people have died as compared to the Black Death or Spanish flu epidemics. That it was largely due to speedy reaction from governments that we didn’t see much worse seems to slip people’s minds.

As with the pandemic, so with the crisis. Except, in this case, the symptoms worldwide came before the panic, but were largely ignored by many. Global economies fell like a house of cards, but it was not until the trickle of bad news turned into a torrent that many people realised just how bad things had got. This wasn’t just a minor bump in trade, but a crisis that would render many unemployed or bankrupt – or worse. The effects have been awful but could it be said that, given the inevitability of something like this happening, it is best that it has happened now rather than getting even further out of control?

One thing that has come out of the global financial crisis is that people have begun to see money in a more enlightened way. Before the crisis, many people saw their credit card as an extension of their financial solvency, rather than something which could very easily ruin it. There was also incredible snobbery towards people who bought things second-hand or cheaply, as conspicuous consumption reached its zenith. Now, it is almost cool to be a thrifty shopper and an assiduous saver.

There have been knock-on benefits in other ways, too. We now seem to have a tendency to recycle more. Consumption and waste are becoming watchwords for us all, which may well be a lesson that bears fruit in years to come. And yet, the fact remains that this crisis has left millions without jobs, without homes and many without hope. It cannot be said with any real measure of truth that this crisis has been a good thing. What it has been – hopefully – is a demonstrable wake-up call to the world that when someone yells “crisis!” it might be worth paying attention.

The Waitomo Glowworm Caves | Waitomo, New Zealand

New Zealand Travel Blog: Part 8

From Te Puia to Waitomo is about a 1 hour-50 minute drive. I was watching the scenery pass by out the window from the tour bus and the natural beauty of New Zealand felt like I was watching something from a movie. Sometimes I felt like I was having a dream because everything can’t be so unimaginably beautiful.

The Waitomo Glowworm Caves are located in Waitomo District, Waikato Region, North Island. If you are visiting New Zealand, these caves should be one of the must-see spots.

These caves glow because of a kind of glow warm called Arachnocampa luminosa. These glowing worms are unique to New Zealand and their luminescent light is what makes the caves glow. These caves are underground and connected to the Waitomo River.

The Waitomo Glowworm Caves withstand the test of time. It took 30 million years of geological and volcanic activity to create these caves. The limestone formation started when the area was under water 30 million years ago.

The limestone is made of small marine organisms, seashells, fish and other sea animal skeletons, corals, and much more. Over millions of years, the fossilized rocks layered and compressed to create the Waitomo region.

Earth movement and sea level rise formed these caves. Air exposure and seabed movement caused cracks in the limestone, allowing water to flow through them and forming the caves slowly over time.

Also, water dripping from the ceiling and dripping over the wall caused limestone to form something like pillars and columns. These pillars can be straight, bent, twisted around each other and so many other peculiar shapes that it’s hard to believe they can all be created by earth and ocean elements without human intervention.

New Zealand Travel Blog: Part 1

New Zealand Travel Blog: Part 2

New Zealand Travel Blog: Part 3

New Zealand Travel Blog: Part 4

New Zealand Travel Blog: Part 5

New Zealand Travel Blog: Part 6

New Zealand Travel Blog: Part 7