Think and Grow Confident!!!

Hello Dear Readers,

I have a great news story to share. It's the most over-the-top thing that's happened to me in the last little while and maybe ever, except for the births of PB, GB, RB and DB. On November 21, 2008, my first ever published article was born!! With great pride and a sense of accomplishment and more drive than ever before to set and reach for loftier goals, I've copied the article herein from the prestigious e-zine, Napoleon Hill - Yesterday and Today Issue 96 November 21, 2008. For those of you who are interested in subscribing to the Napoleon Hill Foundation's distinguished weekly inspirational e-zine, voila the link: http://mailer.napoleon-hill-news.com/common/SignMeUp.html?customerId=3. I can hardly express how thankful I am to Judith Williamson, Director of the Napoleon Hill Foundation, for her encouragement and inspiration and for her kind invitation to submit my article to be included in the guest column. Thank you thank you thank you thank you to all of you too who take your precious time to read what I write with the hope of helping. Thank you too to Katherine Young from Microskills (www.microskills.ca) in Toronto for laying down a challenge and to Karim Ismail at Keep Any Promise (http://www.1shoppingcart.com/app/?af=853142) as well as Darrell, Dave, Michelle, Erin and Bill at Dale Carnegie for helping me set and achieve goals. Thank you always to PB, GB, RB & DB and to Mike and Mum and all my family for encouragement and to all my friends and colleagues at Microskills and Dale Carnegie and other places of inspiration for the positive influence you have provided.

Here's what I had to say:

Think and Grow Confident!

Many experts in the field of personal development profess that we are all born with the confidence we need to go ahead and make a splash, without worrying ourselves about getting wet. Kathy Williams insightfully captures this observable phenomenon in her quote, "Childhood is that state which ends the moment a puddle is first viewed as an obstacle instead of an opportunity." Somewhere along the line, through the mostly well-intended nurturing of parents and other influences, as children we learn to quell our confidence and enthusiasm in order to keep ourselves safe from harm as well as criticism. Paradoxically, the inherent danger of learning to save ourselves from these hazards is that we may become so risk-averse that we don't see the opportunities to make a splash as easily as we would have been able to see them through the bright eyes of a child. Somewhere along the line, we need to find the right formula to optimize our potential to do as much good as we can for ourselves and for others in the short time we share together here in our living years. Were it only that we could equip ourselves as children with a tool to help us strike that balance as early as possible.

Confidence has a most significant impact in determining potential for exceptional achievement over mediocrity. In pondering the significant benefits of developing and maintaining self-confidence, from early on, a familiar jingle for a popular hygiene product called Sure, comes to mind. To that familiar tune, we can wonder, are our children "confident, confident, (or) dry and secure?" We learn well through life’s usual trials and triumphs to subdue our confidence sufficiently to safely reach the milestone of a mid-life crisis apparently unharmed, but too often without any exceptional accomplishments. Safely shrouded in a sense of near emptiness, droves of us are propelled to the self-help section at a big box book store where we meet an overwhelming array of resources to choose from in that fragile state. The words of my bright-eyed five-year-old not yet quite having quashed his confidence and enthusiasm at that tender age, loom large as I can hear him as clearly as if he were right now blurting out as he does from time to time, “Now that’s gotta hurt!” with a subtle and striking emphasis on “gotta.” In my own experience, which I suppose to be far from unique, my selection from the shelf was Napoleon Hill’s all time best seller in the self-development field, Think and Grow Rich, to help me navigate the path from where I wanted to scream, “I quit!” to where I have now regained sufficient confidence to actually look for a puddle of water in which I can make a splash.

For many of us who have broadened our horizons either in the wake of a crisis, or for any good reason have awakened ourselves to a new commitment to succeed, as adults we discovered the “Formula for Self-Confidence” while reading the book and endeavoring to partake of the benefits available to us through Napoleon Hill’s life’s work dedicated to helping the masses find their way to the riches of self-fulfillment. Having learned throughout our lives to navigate clear of the muddied waters through two, three or four and some decades of experience, the “Formula” helps us overcome trepidation and embrace a challenge to regain the confidence that was rightfully ours from birth. Being one of the many who shares in this good fortune, I wished dearly I had discovered the formula much earlier in life.

As prescribed by Napoleon Hill himself, I found myself reciting the formula out loud once a day, sometimes in the presence of my own four precious children, aged 9, 7, 5 and 3. I noticed to my delight, that my children were more than receptive to reciting the formula along with me. One thing I have been unfalteringly confident of throughout parenthood is that I am the luckiest mother ever in the whole wide world and it is my sincere hope that all other parents out there experience the same sentiment. As has been the case of caring parents across cultures for generations through the annals, it is second nature to us to do our best to steer our children clear of harm and criticism, and of course to stay out of puddles. Ideally though, to achieve the utmost in keeping our children safe from all harm, including that of potentially passing up an opportunity, we need to preserve their confidence by equipping them with the sure footing they need to know when and how to get closer to the edge, or nearer to the fire, or to get their feet wet, even if it does make their parents gasp and chastise in fear of our precious little ones being hurt.

While parents cannot and probably should not eliminate the gasping and well-intended chastising that emanate from us almost unwittingly in our conviction to keep our children safe, we can make a conscious effort to also equip them from an early age, with the benefits of Napoleon Hill's recommendation for building self-confidence. With great optimism, imagining the exponential potential gains my children might enjoy if confidence was fostered from the beginning to grow with them, I thought they might derive even more benefit if the language was adapted somewhat to be more age-appropriate for bright-eyed, open-minded, happy-go-lucky, splash-through-the-puddles, early-years learning. With my own renewed confidence and with much gratitude and respect to Napoleon Hill and the Napoleon Hill Foundation, I introduced the following adapted version. There is also a more simplified version intended for very early learners, available on my blog site at www.commuteducation.blogspot.com.

I hope the Formula for Self-Confidence Adapted for Children will be a helpful tool to my own children and to other parents and children who are aiming to strike a balance while learning the lessons of life together, striving for the riches of fulfillment and reaching for our lofty goals to make dreams of a world as good as it can be come true for all of us. When you think about it, what’s the worst that can happen when you take the risk of jumping in a puddle? When we and our children get our feet wet, we can hope and plan to leave a print or a trail of footsteps we would be proud to have others follow. Equipped with knowledge and the confidence to strike a balance, we are better prepared to also think and grow confident about what is the best that can happen.

Ardently,

Kathleen Betts

N.B. The adapted versions of the Formula for Self-Confidence are entered on this blog site under separate posts. I hope you will find them useful tools to help instill and foster self-confidence in children you know.

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