All other things being equal, self-confidence is usually the single ingredient that determines whether a person is successful or unsuccessful.

Self-confidence is not something you are born with; it is acquired. Having self-confidence means you know what your talents are and believe that these talents will help you achieve your goals. It is having faith in your own abilities. It is how you feel about yourself.

To build a successful life, self-confidence is even more important than talent, knowledge, and hard work. When you are confident, you are more likely to take action on your goals. The success of any undertaking starts when you believe in your ability at the start.

How you see yourself has an enormous impact on how others perceive you. When you are self-confident, you are more determined, better equipped to establish positive relationships, and more likely to achieve your goals. Self-confident people are usually more positive, and as a result, more fun to be around.

Our greatest power, according to author J. Martin Kohe in his book Your Greatest Power, is the power to choose. This book was written in 1953 and, in my opinion, is one of the all time personal development classics. Your Greatest Power sold 250,000 copies and Mr. Kohe conducted hundreds of seminars on the powers of choice during the 1950’s. I believe his ideas are even more valuable today than they were in the fifties.
In this first decade of the 21^st century, we face hundreds, nay thousands, more choices than previous generations did. Nevertheless, most of the main choices – the choices that determine our success – are the same. For example, we can choose to:

1. Be positive or negative;
2. Be happy or sad;
3. Be caring or mean;
4. Be enthusiastic or dull;
5. Be ambitious or lazy;
6. Be goal-directed or adrift;
7. Be green and growing or ripe and rotting;
8. Focus on what we can do or what we can’t do;
9. Help or hurt;
10. Build up or tear down;
11. Keep the main thing the main thing or do the wrong things;
12. Act our way to a new set of feelings or be frozen with procrastination or fear;
13. Take responsibility for our actions or make excuses;
14. Look for ways to learn and improve or be satisfied with the status quo;
15. Have fun or be glum;
16. Unleash someone’s potential or squash it;
17. Do our best or settle for good enough;
18. Encourage or discourage;
19. Help people be right or point out how and why they are wrong;
20. Expect, encourage & embrace change or resist change.

J. Martin Kohe quotes:
“The greatest power a person possesses is the power to choose.”
“Let us choose to believe something good can happen.”
“You possess a potent force that you either use, or misuse, hundreds of times every day.”
“Yes, we are all different: different customs, different foods, different mannerisms, different languages, but not so different that we cannot get along with one another; if we disagree without being disagreeable.”

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SUGGESTION: Review the following nine points and make a commitment to abide by all of them on a regular basis and/or pick one a week to work on for the next nine weeks.
When you do these things on a regular basis, you will not only enjoy your job, you’ll love it:

1. Take responsibility for loving your job instead of blaming others.
2. Focus on what you are passionate about in your job.
3. Avoid sarcasm.
4. Make a list of things you are thankful for in your work.
5. Set work and learning goals, for yourself, for your team.
6. Become more creative in your work.
7. Balance your work with important outside activities.
8. Perform one act of kindness for your customers or colleagues every day.
9. Review and renew job resolutions regularly.

Awakening Corporate Soul: Four Paths to Unleash the Power of People at Work

                       by Eric Klein and John Izzo

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