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AFTER WRITING THIS book, I got out an old album of photographs. What I saw was the child within me that hadn’t yet grown up and that had no confidence at all. Growing up with older siblings, they always seemed to do much better than I did in the world and the photographs show I had no confidence and that I was nervous and afraid of life and these are gladly part of my past.
Now, when I look in a mirror, I see who I really am and every person who reads this book has the same opportunity as I did to improve their confidence levels. If you follow through on each of the chapters within this book and keep a record of your progress, you will see that you stop giving off the same body language that is so negative and that the responses you get from people are very different than you may have imagined.
With confidence, I am able to ask my boss for a pay rise. I don’t know that I will get one, but the difference is that I am not afraid of stating my own worth any more. We are all worth something. You may not have the confidence that it takes to do the same thing right now, but at some stage in your life, you will gain that confidence if you follow all the advice given in this book. It is aimed at helping you to develop who you are and no one else can do it for you. All I can do is point you in the right direction. The rest is really up to you. If you take it a step at a time and don’t try to do it all at once, you can congratulate yourself as you learn to achieve even if those things that you achieve are relatively small.
When a baby takes its first steps, its parents are overjoyed with the humble attempt. The baby doesn’t learn to run marathons overnight, but people with confidence problems tend to think that they should learn that fast. Don’t beat yourself up. Lean at a pace that is comfortable for you and read through the book again, taking each of the lessons one at a time and putting them into practice in your life. When you do, you will see a difference. Your confidence levels will rise and you will begin to lose all those self-esteem issues that you dragged with you from the past. Now is a new start. Today is your chance to begin to shake off those self-images that are making you lack in confidence. Take that opportunity to shine.
