Success, whether in academics or life, flows from confidence. But confidence seems as mysterious as the bacteria in Michael Moore’s belly. Bacteria crossbred from beer, pizza, and too much Kathleen Griffin.
Confident people tend to look beautiful, don’t they? But I met a business-savvy supermodel who lived a lonely, troubled, fragile life. She had it all, but happiness. So if good looks don’t ensure confidence, what does? Well, for one, fitness bolsters confidence.
I once slouched and huffed while walking malls. But after ten months of exercise, I now strut the aisles, spine straight, shoulders wide, head up. Fitness sculpts the clay of confidence.
Also, skills boost confidence—practical skills. At job interviews, I whispered when I listed my skill-set. My master’s degree didn’t teach practical skills. Instead, my degrees force-fed social justice. In hindsight, I should’ve gotten an MBA. After all, employers want transferrable skills, not political correctness, not snowflakes with fish handshakes.
At least I avoided the math degree. I still shudder over job prospects for math majors: tutoring, programming synthesizers, or teaching rowdy tenth-graders. Jobs that would leave me number-crunching my next meal.
As for psychology or sociology degrees, you generally need a master’s to make a name for yourself. Or you need to get lucky in job interviews. I tend to believe that most airy-fairy degrees matter little to employers. But with a business degree, you run the office. Confidence beams from bosses taught to avoid losses.
Brady Moller shares ways to gain confidence in his book Unveiling Happiness: Discover the Keys to Creating Happiness within Yourself, at Work and in Your Relationships:
- Confidence leads to motivation, success, and happiness: “When you’re confident in your abilities, you feel motivated to achieve your goals and obtain success. When you achieve the successes you have set out for yourself, you feel happy” (location 100 of 250, 40% of preview).
- On the flipside, “people that lack self-confidence struggle to find inner peace, they struggle to find success, and ultimately, they struggle to find happiness” (location 100, 40% of preview).
- What is confidence? “Confidence is having faith in an ability. It’s as simple as that. If you have faith in your ability to do something, then it’s backed up by your confidence” (location 133, 53%).
- So, hone skills to gain confidence: “Confidence is only gained through practice …. It takes months, if not years of training before [you] become confident in [your] skills” (location 155, 62%).
- But hone skills you love: “It is crucial that you become confident at something you: value, respect, long for, and/or love” (location 155, 62%).
- Why must you feel passion for pursuits? “We can learn anything we want, but success if determined by how badly we want it” (location 155, 62%).
Lastly, experience gives you confidence. The more you memorize, the better you memorize. The more you write, the better you write. And the more you move, the more confident you grow. So, for a chest-puffer, chin-upper, nose-lifter, move like Michael Moore on Metamucil.
