Building self confidence is easy but making it stick…not so much

There’s something I know about you that may shock you. 

It’s something that is so crazy and off-the-wall strange that you might refuse to believe it. 

And I wouldn’t blame you at all.

I hope you’re sitting down because here it is:

You have an extra brain. 

Remember, I told you it was crazy? When I first heard of it I thought it was too. Until, that is, I found scientific evidence from a doctor that backed it up

But what on earth has this to do with building my self-confidence?

Good question. Glad you asked.

Let’s start with discussing what exactly we’re talking about when we talk about self-confidence.

According to Wikipedia “Self Confidence” is described as: 

Confidence comes from a Latin word ‘fidere’ which means “to trust”; therefore, having self-confidence is having trust in one’s self. 

Trust is a huge factor in building self-confidence and I’ll have more to say about it in a minute. But first let’s be clear on what we’re talking about. 

In my view there are two kinds of self confidence:

  1. Work Mastery – This is confidence that comes from having a high degree of proficiency at a task. This could be anything from playing a musical instrument to being an expert at landscaping. Most people who have been at a job, profession, or doing any particular thing for a long time have this type of confidence.
  2. Social Serenity – This is when you feel comfortable when communicating, working, or just being around other people. You have a comfort level that draws people toward you because you seem sure of yourself and what you stand for. This is generally the most sought after type of confidence. 

Obviously the first type of confidence, Work Mastery, is the most common so for our purposes here we’ll be referencing the second type, Social Serenity, whenever the word “confidence” is mentioned.

If you go online you’ll find a number of remedies for low self esteem or lack of confidence. You’ll see free tips to get you started on building your self confidence. Almost all of them will tell you that it will take persistence to get the job done. In other words, their message is: It will be a long long road.

So, you might see results after you’ve completed the course, read the books, attended the seminar, and contemplated your existence while sitting quietly in a lotus position on a mat by yourself for twenty minutes a day over six weeks or so.

But here’s the good news:Confident person with arms up in triumphant gesture with words describing various positive qualities

  • feeling good about yourself
  • having a sustained self esteem
  • finding the strength that you can trust yourself
  • feeling confident in your abilities 

All the above becomes quickly possible, or not, depending if you are

  1. Aware that you have a second brain in your gut that can be optimized to work with the one brain you’re familiar with, AND
  2. That both of these different brains can be optimized to work together to give you more pronounced insights.

Remember you have not just one but two very different brains in your body. 

As a human being you do two things everyday all day: you think things and you feel things.

And now we know you have a separate brain for each of those two tasks. The one in your head is a thinking brain but it can’t feel anything. There are no pain receptors in the cortex at all.

The other one is in your gut. It’s much smaller but it’s not designed for thinking much. It’s a feeling brain. It feels everything from your greatest joys to your deepest sorrows… and everything in between.

It’s extremely sensitive to pressure. Which is how it does it’s job of managing the complicated work of the digestion process so incredibly well. Of course, that’s not all it does.

If you want to speed up the process to building self-trust and be blessed with an immutable confidence on an ongoing basis your second brain (AKA: your gut brain) is the place to go.

Now, in case your wondering, we’re not going to abandon the head brain. Certainly not. We need both brains working in concert to be able to think and feel at the same time. That way we can experience the good vibes of the gut brain and use that to suppress the noise that the head brain is in the habit of creating. That way we can check the decisions we’re thinking about while, at the same time, see how we feel about them before we put them into action. I call this…

Collaborative Intelligence 

But why do we need this? 

One big reason is to distance yourself from all the negative self talk that’s holding you back. Remember, it’s critical that you need to see that you can trust yourself. That you’re worthy of success. To arrive there means that you must first build a rock-solid self belief. If you can do this your self confidence will soar.

The big question, of course, is how?

The key is to know the truth. The truth that you have been successful your entire life. That kind of truth is powerful stuff. But it’s only found by examining the one thing that backed your success in any achievement you’ve ever had. It’s called your GRIT (better known as the gut drive of persistence).

I have two acronyms that I want you to remember from now on. 

  • GRIT — Gut Recall Increases Traction  
  • GRIT — Gut R ecognizes Internal Truth

Why are these important? Because of a critical finding made by researchers over forty years ago and reported in a book which sold over three million copies back in 1978. It was titled “In Search of Excellence”.  It appears that the old adage ‘Nothing succeeds like success’ turns out to have a sound scientific base…

Researchers studying motivation find that the prime factor is simply the self perception among motivated subjects that they are in fact doing well.

…mere association with past personal success apparently leads to more persistence, higher motivation, or something that makes us do better.

Ya, “something that makes us do better”. I love that. They didn’t have a clue as to what that “something” was but today, after all this time, the answer to that question is coming into focus. And you my friend are going to reap the greatest rewards because of it. That is because you now know about that extra brain in your gut. Knowing this can make a big difference in how you can develop a self confidence that never leaves you.

More power to you.

David 

PS: Want to know more about how you can use your dual-brain system to acquire a through-the-roof confidence and a rock solid self-belief that never leaves you? 

Then go here and learn more about the HERO Tour now.

Getting through your “eventually”.

Success quote by Art Williams

It’s long been known that nothing that is worthwhile is easy to do or easy to get.

“There is no free lunch” is an old saying that’s been around since the 1920’s depression era.

Art Williams is a self-made millionaire who, having worked as a high school coach, went into selling insurance. He decided one day to start his own insurance company. In the early years it is said that he was so terrified of starting out each morning that he’d throw-up from the stress of it.

But he overcame all that and eventually built one of the most successful businesses in America.

Notice I said “eventually“. That word can describe some of the longest timelines one could ever imagine. You start out doing something worthwhile and soon the ‘eventually’ kicks in. From then on it’s work and toil without much gratification.

That’s the way it’s been for every accomplished person since the beginning. I know, believe me, I know.

If you’re setting out to do something new try not to think of how long a word “eventually” will be for you. Your true story of accomplishment will be written in your tears and your brave moments when something finally clicked.

“Easy” never could make much of a compelling narrative in comparison to “tough” anyway. That story of accomplishment, created through the act of endurance, is your story. It belongs to you, and what it presents to you is the hard evidence that builds a strong irrefutable belief in you that says “yes”, you are worthy. That alone makes the journey worth it.

More power to you.

Mobiusman
PS: Did you know that persistence is not something that the head brain can produce but that the gut brain is fully in tune with? Find out how to train your head brain to know what your gut brain is doing to help you get through your “eventually”. Leave your comment below and I’ll tell you all about it.

Deep Self-Belief Test

Mobius Monday Minute – May 30 , 2011

Mobius Monday Minute logo

As you may know I’m very into examining the mechanisms behind our self-belief (or lack thereof). In my work I often find corresponding mirror-like operators in each of the two natures we humans have – the physical and the ethereal.

This duality thing is quite fascinating because it informs us of so many unique qualities that underscore the miracle of what it means to be human.

Case in point is the importance of the strength of our individual self-belief (ethereal body) and the level of glucose in our blood (physical body). Both seem to be indicators of the wellness of the systems that they are such a vital part of.

You probably know already that tests for blood glucose levels can be done by yourself at home using a glucose meter but what about a test for our own strength of self-belief?

I suppose a meter would be a cool thing to have for this too but that might be a bit of a tough thing to come up with since self-belief exists only in the domain of the ethereal.

Fortunately there is a reliable less outwardly mechanical way that helps give us an indication of the level of our deep self-belief and each of us already have it in our possession.

It’s the little known brain in the gut called the ‘enteric nervous system’.

Now, not everyone has heard that humans have another brain in their body besides the one in the head. Can’t say I’m surprised at that. I didn’t learn of it myself until 1996 and that was just by chance. A friend of mine had told me that there was an article on it in the New York Times science section.

It blew me away when I read it.

I had for years been trying to tell people that I thought there existed something like a base of operations for a motivational source that seemed to emanate from the gut area of the body. At the time there was a label in wide use back then calling this area the “solar plexus”. This seemed a descriptive term for it because it was recognized that there were a large mass of nerve fibers in this area that seemed to radiate out from a central area like the sun’s rays.

This description, although fancifully romantic, wasn’t very accurate medically. It was really just a boxing term for all the nerves identified in that area. It was Dr. Michael Gershon, it’s modern-day discoverer, who actually coined the more scientific term “enteric nervous system” for this unusual brain.  ( In his book Gershon admits that he wasn’t the first one to actually discover this extra brain.  He explains that the initial discovery was made 100 years earlier by two young British physiologists at London University – William Bayliss and Ernest Starling.)

So what’s the one thing that distinguishes this brain from the one in the head? Well, besides the obvious location differences it has one overriding feature: it’s a feeling brain not a thinking brain. It’s so good at feeling it can even sense things that would defy any scientific inquiry. It apparently can feel the presence of  something in the ethereal (non-physical) plane.

Just to take the edge off that let’s just use the common vernacular and call it a “hunch”.

So, to test your personal self-belief all you need to do is tune in to and ‘see’ what your gut feels about your next big decision. Then, if you feel you can trust the direction it’s pointing you in (is it good or bad?) you should at least have some idea of which way to go.

Be warned though. Where it takes you to may not at first seem like a good thing. But remember, successful conclusions often come with long timelines. Of course, that’s why you need a sense of deep self-belief in the first place.

More power to you my friends.

David's signature in look-like handwriting

 

PS: How would you like to develop a deep belief in yourself in 24 hours or less? Check this out

 

The Willing and the Desperate

Mobius Monday Minute logo# 16  May 16, 2011

In a lot of places the economy is still in the dumper. When faced with challenges like we are going through these days people can be found who are willing to do all kinds of stuff to pull through. Allowing your house to be used as a billboard might be just the answer for some.

But others are way more desperate.

Police in the Scottish region of Tayside were appealing for information after four bee hives containing several thousand British black bees were stolen from a medical school in the city of Dundee. The black bees which are reported to be easily recognized, were part of a research project at the Centre for Neurosciences at the Dundee University’s medical school.

People do strange things when they feel they need to. Even if it means breaking the law. Apparently it’s not much different in the world of personal growth either. Seminars have for years been conducted that take participants across dangerous territory, climb high mountains, and in a few cases even leads them to sit and endure extremely high temperatures in a jury-rigged “sweat lodge”.

I always thought that self growth was an important pursuit and all the business advice I’ve read makes it clear that, believing in one’s self for example, is paramount to success attainment.

But I think it should be simpler. And safer.

That’s why I spent over thirty years of my life perfecting a simple little tweak that works to supercharge your efforts at being a better you. And you don’t even have to go outside your house to do it.

I’ll tell you more about it here.

More power to you.
David is the developer of the H.E.R.O. eMachine

Hangin’ in there

Mobius Monday Minute – May 9 , 2011

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I subscribe to a design blog and they send me updates like a lot of blogs do. The latest one contained a quote someone sent in from broadcaster Ira Glass. Ira won the much coveted Edward R. Murrow Award in 2009. He’s a very accomplished writer and radio personality. Been doing it since he was just nineteen years old.

Know what he said about his beginnings in radio? He said that he took the longest time to reach a level of mastery in doing interviews and stories on radio then anyone he knows. He says that getting through the beginning time can take years of working through the frustration with your own crappy output. It tries to be good but it’s just not. He says that’s where most loose it. They quit because they are convinced that they will never ever see success.

I know what he’s talking about.

I’ve just had another birthday blow by and I’m still trying to refine my message about mindset immunity and the fact that I have the tool that can allow anyone, in 24 hours or less, to see and feel the huge ocean of potential that exists within them. And when they use this tool they can create amazing levels of self-belief.

When attempting to do something new it becomes a creative work no matter what field you work in. There is a lot of failure to contend with.

In another email I got this week Ishita Gupta was interviewing Steven Pressfield on his new book “Do The Work“. In it Pressfield related a story about Picasso:

“There’s a famous story of Picasso after he had finished about 24 paintings for his next show. He invited his agent or his manager to his studio to look at the paintings and as Picasso was looking at them with his manager, he started to hate them. He grabbed a painting knife and started slashing the paintings. The manager absolutely freaked out and said, “NO, NO, NO!” but Picasso kept slashing until they were all ruined. Then he went back to the drawing board.”

That’s the kind of craziness that happens with our own self-assessment. It’s punishing to be a creative or a leader of any kind.

If I was going to quit I should have done it 20 years ago. But I didn’t and now I can’t. There is just too much at stake. Too many lives to help make better, richer, more fulfilling.

Besides, it worked for Ira so it’ll work for me.

It’ll work for you too. Hang in there.

More power to you.

David's signature in look-like handwriting



PS; Let me know what you think about the challenge of trying to put together something brand new. Leave me your thoughts in the comment area below. If you’d like to get alerted on new blog posts  you can subscribe by clicking here.