Building Confidence - Monday Motivation by arunb

There are two important foundational pillars of achieving success in any field of life- Competence and Confidence. These two complement each other and both are required to achieve anything of significance. In our educational and sports institutions, a lot of focus is given to building competence but the onus of knowing and following the process to build confidence is left to individuals. Everyone says and knows that confidence is important, but how to gain, enhance and sustain it is not clearly communicated. 

Confidence means having the awareness that we know something so well and that we have practiced enough to be able to provide an appropriate response under any circumstance without conscious effort. 

The question is what process do we need to follow to build such confidence in any of our abilities?  

Confidence is not something you can gain once and be done with it. It is a continuous process of creative and positive thinking, which largely depends on two factors: 

The first factor is to learn from our successes and register that in our memory, and the second factor is to restructure experiences of failures in such a way that we can extract learning from them without getting entrapped into the vicious cycle of regrets. 

Confidence is a fragile thing. Therefore, it is important to give constant attention to enhancing it and put consistent efforts to prevent any erosion. Just experiencing success does not enhance confidence. We have to extract relevant learning and consciously commit that to our memory to enhance our confidence. Similarly, failure does not necessarily reduces confidence. We have to observe failures with a detachment to learn from them without getting sucked into the quagmire of negative thoughts. 

In summary, the growth of confidence does not depend on our experiences of life but on how we interpret them and what we choose to retain in our memory. Our confidence then is the net result of the positive and negative deposits we make in our psychological bank. 

The Science of Motivation - MM Feb 13

 

Many times in our personal, social, and professional life we have to play a role to motivate others. The research suggests that with the most popularly used carrot and stick model we may be able to instill fear or exploit greed to force people to act in the short run, but we can not kindle a flame of inspiration in their hearts to perform at their best in the long run.

I believe after survival is taken care of, ultimately the root cause of motivation is the same for all human beings: A desire and hope to live a purposeful life; a life towards experiences of happiness and away from sufferings of sorrows.    

There is no need to plant the seeds of inspiration from outside, we all have seeds for being our best. When those seeds of great capabilities are nourished by the hope of a meaningful life, fueled by the sap of passion, they sprout in the form of positive progressive ideas. These purpose-driven ideas are inspired by the laws of nature to follow the rays of hope for progress and joyful life. 

Therefore, in summary, motivation is not an external force but an inner drive that can be activated by the hope of a meaningful life in the presence of a favorable environment. We do our best when we want to do something willingly, and not when we are forced to do something against our will. 

An inspiring vision and a desire to achieve something meaningful in life nurture commitment, accountability, and ownership - the virtues that form the foundation of peak performance in individuals and in teams. But the human mind seeks a few empowerments to translate inspirations into outcomes. 

- We want to have a say in the decision-making process and have the freedom to choose our actions

- We all want to have the right to be treated with respect, trust, and fair treatment   

- We want our efforts to be appreciated and good work to be recognized.

When we experience such a favorable environment in our personal, social, or professional life; the seeds of unlimited potential that are inside all of us transform and manifest as the fruit of greatness to make this world a better place. 

The question is -  Is the environment in your personal, social, and professional life favorable to inspire peak performance? If not, what are you going to do about it? 

More importantly, if you are in a position of power and influence, are you mindful of what you say and what you do to nurture a favorable environment that inspires people to be their best to perform their best. Because when people are propelled by an inner drive, everything they do becomes the expression of joy. 

When we are happy, we are at our best, and everyone wins. 

4 Dimensions of Inspirational Truth

If we take the analogy of the human brain as a computer, then the human mind will map to its operating system. This inner operating system processes the information acquired through our sensory organs to create the experience of happiness or sorrow.    

With the power of intention, positive thoughts, and practice, we can program our inner operating system to perform at our best. Similarly, we also have the power of words to remotely program the operating system of others and influence their life experiences. We can enhance as well as diminish emotions of joy and sorrow in others with our speech. If we understand this secret and utilize the power of inspirational speech meaningfully, we can inspire ourselves, our loved ones and our colleagues to live a life of excellence. 

You might have experienced that some people take pride in saying they are straightforward and truthful. They believe they speak their heart out and call 'A Spade - A Spade'. Some even believe that the sharper the words, the more effective and useful their truth is for others. Have you ever experienced someone doing this to you? Were you ever the reason for such an experience for someone else?  

Let us reflect on how can we enhance the quality of our speech to ensure that our words do not cause sorrow and do not diminish the confidence of someone vulnerable. 

Inspiring speech should have four virtues: One, whatever we say should be the TRUTH and not a lie, rumor, or inspired by the intent of flattery. But that is not enough. What we speak should be AMICABLE and should not create agony or embarrassment for the listener. The third virtue of an inspiring speech is that it should create some VALUE for the listener, and the fourth virtue is that what we say should be FOCUSED on the intended value and not vague so it is effective.   

Embellished by these four virtues, an inspirational speech has immense power to inspire positive introspection and transform the listener's life. 

With the hope that in the future you will not utilize the pretext of being straightforward to hide your feelings of jealousy and to 'give piece of your mind' to someone; instead, your speech will have the four virtues so that you can touch hearts of people and also experience inner joy in your own life.